2020-05-04 14:09:14

Shafaq News / The Ministry of Finance of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced Monday paying the salaries of Peshmerga forces for the last January.

A statement of the Ministry stated that tomorrow, Tuesday, the salaries of the employees of Peshmerga Ministry will be disbursed.

KRG began on Monday, to pay the salaries of health staff.

KRG said on Saturday that it had decided to start paying employee salaries "according to the available capabilities."

This came during the meeting of the Prime Minister of the Region, Masrour Barzani, with the government negotiating delegation that visited Baghdad last week.

The visit came days after the Iraqi government cut the salaries of employees of Kurdistan Region after it said that the region had not fulfilled its obligations in the financial budget represented by the delivery of 250 thousand barrels of oil per day to the federal government.

While KRG affirms its commitment to the 2019 budget lines and the agreement signed with Baghdad in early January 2019.

The agreement includes the delivery of Kurdistan Region, the amount of 250 thousand barrels per day of oil to the Federal Government in return for handing Baghdad a share of about 13 % of the budget to the region in addition to the salaries of employees and Peshmerga.

The cut in the salaries of the employees of the region has sparked widespread criticism inside and outside the region, as observers considered that this decision comes in the context of political pressure coinciding with the efforts of Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to form the new government.

There are pending issues between the two sides for many years, most notably the disputed territories, how to manage oil wealth, the budget of Peshmerga forces, and others.