Cabinet passes budget bill with Kurdish rejection and withdrawal ‬

Iraq

2014-01-15T12:46:34+00:00

An informed source , who asked for anonymity told “Shafaq News , that today's Council meeting included a discussion of the budget law , when the discussion reached to the amount of exported oil paragraph from Kurdistan Region , Arab and Turkmen Ministers agreed against the position of Kurds .

He added that the first party insisted that the province exported 400 000 barrels of oil per day via SOMO by the knowledge of the federal government and threatened that if the regional government didn’t commit on this paragraph then amounts will be deducted from the region's share of the budget , amounting to 17% of the total .

The source added that the Deputy Prime Minister , Roze Nuri Shaways as well as ministers of trade and health, defended the position of the region and told the other party that the government has deprived Peshmarga forces from its budget during the previous years then who will punish it.

He went on saying that the Kurdish party told the other party that it doesn’t support this paragraph , stressing to hold dialogue and negotiation to resolve this issue .

The source said that the Council decided to vote on the law, then the Kurdish party decided to withdraw from the meeting , adding that the council passed the law unanimously by the other party and signature of Prime Minister , Nuri al-Maliki .

He explained that the paragraph which was rejected by the Kurdish side commits Kurdistan Regional Government by 400 000 barrels of oil per day by SOMO and the knowledge of the federal government then the dues of oil companies operating in the region would be paid by 17% .

The source added that the Council of Ministers sent the bill to the parliament for voting.

It is scheduled to for the President of Kurdistan Regional Government , Nechirvan Barzani at the head of a government delegation to visit Baghdad today or tomorrow to discuss the differences between Baghdad and Erbil on the budget bill and the export of oil from the region to Turkey via the new pipeline.