Parliamentary Finance: Our goal in amending the budget is to resolve suspicions of smuggling the region’s oil
Parliamentary Finance: Our goal in amending the budget is to resolve suspicions of smuggling the region’s oil
1-18-2025
Information/Baghdad..
The Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed, today, Saturday, the objectives of amending the budget, while confirming that one of the objectives of the amendment is to resolve suspicions of oil smuggling in the Kurdistan Region.
A statement from his office received by Al-Maalouma Agency stated that the Parliamentary Finance Committee, headed by Atwan Al-Atwani, held an expanded meeting to discuss amending the three-year budget law proposed by the government, which is included on the agenda of tomorrow’s session.
He added, “The meeting discussed ways to mature the proposed government amendment to paragraph 12 of the Federal General Budget Law in a way that ensures resolving the problem of calculating the costs of producing oil in the Kurdistan Region, as a prelude to resolving the outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil.”
He added: “Mechanisms for regulating the legal relationship between the federal government, the regional government, and international oil companies operating in the region’s fields, by including in this amendment paragraphs that oblige everyone to implement and close the avenues for evasion and avoidance of fulfilling constitutional obligations according to specific time frames.”
He stressed the “necessity of the regional government’s commitment to exporting its oil through SOMO, informing the federal government of its oil contracts, and involving it in the management of production fields.”
The statement stressed that “the attendees called on the government to expedite sending the 2025 budget tables to the House of Representatives in order to include all accounting topics related to this amendment, including making a financial settlement within the framework of the established points, including oil revenues and others that were not delivered to the central government’s account.”
He noted that “the Finance Committee has made great strides in discussing the amendment of the budget law.”
He pointed out that “this amendment represents a starting point towards building a legal relationship between the federal government and the regional government in managing oil wealth.”
The statement concluded: “Our goal in approving this amendment is to subject the export of the region’s oil to the authority of the federal government, and to end suspicions about its smuggling.”
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