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Iraq adopts its 2018 budget, slashes allocations for Kurds
 [ARABNEWS] Iraq’s parliament on Saturday adopted an $88.5 billion budget for 2018, with Kurdish politicians boycotting the vote to protest against a cut in the amount allocated to their autonomous region.The reduction comes after a controversial independence reference by the Kurds last year sparked a furious dispute with the central government. The budget is based on projected oil exports of 3.9 million barrels per day, including 250,000 bpd produced in the Kurdistan autonomous region of northern Iraq, at a price of $46 per barrel. It also projects $77.5 billion (63 billion euros) in revenues and a deficit of $10.6 billion, and allocates $20.8 billion for investments. Kurdish politicians boycotted the vote because it reduced Kurdistan’s part of the national budget from 17 percent to 12.6 percent. Article 9 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that Kurdistan’s share of the budget must reflect the size of the population of the autonomous region. But the text of the budget approved by parliament on Saturday states that the autonomous Kurdish government must export 250,000 bpd and hand over the money it earns from the sales to the federal authorities. "If Kurdistan does not hand over (the money), the finance ministry will take it from its part of the budget," it said. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of the northern province of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... home to key oilfields, in June 2014 after federal forces withdrew in the face of an offensive by the ISIS group. Posted by: Fred 2018-03-04 |
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