Legal expert: The Kurdistan Region has the right to reject changes that affect its rights in the budget
Legal expert: The Kurdistan Region has the right to reject changes that affect its rights in the budget
2023-05-27 03:51
Shafaq News / The legal expert, Salem Hawas, saw that the recent changes made to the Iraqi general budget draft law, by the Finance Committee in Parliament, especially those related to the dues of the Kurdistan Region, are in violation of the agreements concluded between Baghdad and Erbil.
Hawass told Shafaq News agency, “The changes affecting the budget and the rights of the region are considered a violation of the agreements concluded, and the commitment to the political agreement of the State Administration Coalition has always been the basis for security and stability in Iraq, and it is the step on which the political process in Iraq has relied since 2003 towards a better future.” country and all its components.
He added, “Going beyond understanding and agreement and seeking to violate rights and agreements outside the constitution only results in disappointment and disturbs the political stability on which the state was built,” calling on political parties to “commit to agreements in order to avoid creating new legal and constitutional crises, which the country is indispensable for.”
Hawass explained, “The Parliamentary Legal Committee completed the legal drafting of the budget items and sent them to the Finance Committee, so the Finance Committee inevitably waits for the agreement of the political blocs to resolve the differences before proceeding with a vote on them in the House of Representatives, and therefore this requires the fulfillment of the obligations and promises concluded with the region.”
The legal expert pointed out, “The political consensus between the blocs, which was and still is the basis for approving important laws, including the budget, and what afflicted the political process in terms of regression must be left after approving the budget and with a single standard on all parties to turn towards serving the Iraqi people, away from quotas based on Agreements and promises that violate the constitution and return to its implementation.
The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, had expressed “deep concern” about what he called the changes that affected the paragraphs of the Iraqi general budget bill related to the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region, and said that he rejected them “completely.”
And before that, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, said, “A group in the Finance Committee of the Iraqi Parliament made changes to the draft federal budget, violating a prior agreement we concluded with the State of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani and his government,” noting that “the agreement that is the cornerstone of For cooperation between Erbil and Baghdad, and everyone must respect its clauses.
Thursday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee voted to oblige the Kurdistan Region to pay 10% on a monthly basis from the salaries deducted to its employees, while this was included in the budget amendments that are being discussed.
A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mustafa Sanad, also confirmed the committee’s vote to amend paragraphs related to the region in the budget law, regarding its delivery of oil, while pointing to the withdrawal of the Democratic Party bloc representatives from the meeting.
And the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved, on the 13th of last March, the largest financial budget in the history of the country, which exceeded 197 trillion and 828 billion Iraqi dinars (about 152.2 billion dollars), with a total deficit of 63 trillion Iraqi dinars, taking advantage of the rise in oil prices globally. , which constitutes more than 95% of the country’s financial revenues, amid objections from financial and legal experts regarding the budget items, but it has not yet been approved due to disagreements.
shafaq.com
