Baghdad responds to the region regarding the budget amendment
Baghdad responds to the region regarding the budget amendment
2025-01-24
The federal government denied Thursday, January 23, 2025, what was announced by the spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, regarding submitting a proposal contrary to the amendment of the Council of Ministers in the financial budget law to the House of Representatives.
Government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi said in a statement, “Based on the government’s keenness on transparency and informing citizens of the progress of its executive work, especially with regard to the budget issue, which is a fundamental pillar for implementing the commitments contained in the government program, we affirm the government’s commitment to the amendments sent to the House of Representatives regarding the budget law, which takes into account the supreme national interest, and we stress that the government’s representative in the House of Representatives stressed the need not to make any other amendments to the budget law that contradict the texts submitted by the Council of Ministers.”
He added, “At the same time, we deny what was stated in the statement of the spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, and we are surprised by what was stated in it regarding the claim that the representative of the federal government in the House of Representatives obstructed the amendment of the article related to the procedures for resuming oil exports from the region.”
Al-Awadi stressed “the importance of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s commitment to the provisions of the Federal General Budget Law, including the delivery of financial revenues, whether oil or non-oil, to the federal government, in accordance with what is stipulated in the law and the decision of the Federal Court.”
He explained that “adherence to these procedures is a necessary step to resolve the problems related to this file and enhance cooperation between the two sides, and the federal government hopes that the House of Representatives will expedite the approval of the amendment in accordance with the text approved by the Council of Ministers, for the benefit of Iraq, all of Iraq.”
The spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government said in a statement earlier today that “after a series of meetings and persistent efforts aimed at amending the federal general budget law by the Council of Representatives with the aim of resuming the export of the region’s oil, and after completing the first and second readings, unfortunately, the draft law was not approved in the agreed-upon form at the last minute.”
He pointed out that, “What increased our surprise was that the representative of the federal government in the Council of Representatives submitted a different proposal to the Council unilaterally, without prior consultation with the Kurdistan Regional Government, and without presenting it to the Federal Council of Ministers for a vote, which contradicts the previous decision of the Council of Ministers regarding the approval of the draft law amendment for the purpose of resuming the export of oil from the Kurdistan Region.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman stressed that “such attempts only serve to harm Iraq, and contribute to deepening crises instead of finding effective solutions to them. Accordingly, we declare our complete rejection of these measures and proposals, and we emphasize the necessity of presenting the agreed-upon draft law and approving it by the Federal Council of Ministers and voting on it.”
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