Iraq disburses June salaries for KRG civil servants

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi government on Tuesday decided to disburse the June salaries for the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants, a well-informed source said, on the condition that Erbil hands over 120 billion dinars (around $90 million) in non-oil revenues. 

The decision was taken at a regular cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. A high-level source from the meeting told Rudaw that the federal government agreed to disburse the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) civil servants’ salaries.

Rudaw has learned that Erbil and Baghdad have reached to equally split the KRG’s non-oil revenues.

Earlier in August, a KRG finance ministry source told Rudaw that the 120 billion dinars are ready to be handed over, but that Erbil was waiting for Baghdad’s decision to send the salaries. 

A week prior, the Kurdistan Region’s natural resources ministry said that Erbil and Baghdad have reached an agreement on the mechanism of resuming the Region’s long-delayed oil exports, but that more talks with Iraq and Turkey are required. 

Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023, after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin exporting oil independently in 2014. 

Under that deal, the KRG will keep 50,000 barrels per day for domestic consumption and transfer the rest to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) for export through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations.

In return for Erbil handing over its oil, Baghdad pledged to release delayed funds to cover the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s public sector employees. The federal government last transferred 975 billion dinars (around $737 million) to cover May wages.

Halkawt Aziz and Ziyad Ismail contributed to this report. 

[Source: Rûdaw English]