The ASYCUDA system is about to be activated at the Kurdistan border crossings.
The ASYCUDA system is about to be activated at the Kurdistan border crossings.
2026/07/19
The Border Crossings and National Product Protection Committee in the House of Representatives expected that the memorandum of understanding between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region regarding the unification of border crossings and the activation of the “ASYCUDA” system would soon be implemented.
Committee member Salwan Taha Aqrawi told Al-Sabah: “There is a memorandum of understanding between the two governments to coordinate the revenue mechanism between the federal ports and the ports of the region,” noting that there is a memorandum of understanding between them regarding unifying all ports and activating the ASYCUDA system in the region.
The MP explained that the memorandum was submitted to the Ministerial Council for Economy for approval, and after that it will be ratified by the Federal Cabinet, expecting it to be implemented soon.
Aqrawi continued, stating that according to the constitution, half of the non-oil revenues, including customs duties and taxes, are handed over to the federal government. He noted that the Ministry of Finance in the regional government publishes all its revenues annually, including customs revenues, in clear tables, and that the Federal General Authority of Customs also publishes its revenues collected from all ports.
For his part, economist Jalil al-Lami said that the move to activate the ASYCUDA system at the Kurdistan Region’s border crossings represents a significant turning point in the course of economic reform and customs administration in Iraq. Al-Lami added to Al-Sabah that this move will end the multiplicity of procedures and establish a unified electronic system linking all border crossings to a central database, enabling real-time monitoring of the movement of goods and revenues and reducing human intervention, corruption, and customs evasion.
He explained that the Kurdistan Region currently has four main official trade border crossings: Ibrahim Khalil with Turkey, Bashmakh, Parvizkhan and Haji Omran with Iran, in addition to Erbil and Sulaimaniyah International Airports, which complete customs transactions for goods. There are also six unofficial crossings that are currently being evaluated by a joint committee between Baghdad and Erbil to determine the possibility of converting some of them into official crossings and closing the crossings that do not meet the legal and technical requirements.
The MP predicted that the full implementation of the ASYCUDA system at the region’s ports would raise customs revenues by a percentage ranging between (50 and 150 percent) according to economic estimates, noting that according to these data, revenues in the Kurdistan Region could rise from (1) trillion to (1.75) trillion annually, which means an increase of around (750) billion dinars annually.
He explained that, according to the budget law and financial agreements, handing over half of the non-oil revenues to the federal treasury will give the central government an additional resource estimated at (800) billion dinars annually, while the region will retain the other half, with an actual increase in its resources as a result of reducing tax evasion and corruption and improving collection efficiency.
alsabaah.iq
