At a Glance

• MP Jamal Kochar urged senior KRG leaders to travel to Baghdad immediately to secure the 2027 budget share before talks close.
• Kochar warned that Kurdish fragmentation weakens leverage, noting that Shia factions are currently blocking public salary allocations.
• The lawmaker proposed institutional reciprocity to mirror federal funding, or distributing budgets directly to provinces if regional talks fail.

Lawmaker Jamal Kochar called on senior KRG officials to move quickly before it is too late to travel to Baghdad and secure the Kurdistan Region's share in the draft budget bill, adding that the Region is failing to engage with the budget issue “at a high level.”

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Key Statements and Focus Areas

• Jamal Kochar, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Channel8 that Kurdish fragmentation and weakness in Baghdad will negatively impact the stabilization of the Kurdistan Region’s share in the budget.
• “So far, the Kurdistan Region's share in the Iraqi budget has not been finalized, and no agreement has been reached on this matter,” he stressed.

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Speaking to Channel8 in an interview, Lawmaker Kochar, who is a member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament who attended a Finance Committee meeting on Sunday, where the 2027 draft budget bill was discussed, said:

He noted that a senior delegation, led by either the Prime Minister or President of the Kurdistan Region, should travel to Baghdad, as the federal government is currently managing the budget at the highest level of the ruling Coordination Framework.

According to the lawmaker, a Kurdistan Region delegation is expected to visit Baghdad for this purpose, but it remains unknown what exactly will be agreed upon.

Kochar emphasized that what is approved in the Council of Ministers “will not necessarily be approved in the same manner within the Council of Representatives, as these are two highly sensitive stages.”

He underlined that KRG public sector salaries remain one of the most heavily debated topics, adding that Shia factions are currently "posing an obstacle to securing salaries within the draft budget bill."

The lawmaker stated that the substantial number of Kurdish ministers within the federal Council of Ministers could assist in securing the Kurdistan Region's share of the budget.

"According to the constitution and the law, these ministers have the power to firmly establish the Kurdish share within the draft bill,” he added.

To protect the Kurdistan Region's financial interests, Kochar proposed a strategy of institutional reciprocity, demanding that allocations for Kurdish government bodies directly mirror those of their federal counterparts.

Under this framework, he argued that funding for the Kurdistan Region Presidency, the KRG Council of Ministers, and the Kurdistan Parliament must be explicitly secured in exchange for the federal budgets allocated to the Presidency of the Republic, the federal Council of Ministers, and the Council of Representatives.

The lawmaker further highlighted that if Baghdad interacts with the Kurdistan Region as a single unified entity, the budget must be allocated within that regional framework.

Alternatively, he said that if dealings are instead conducted at the provincial level, specific budgets must be dedicated directly to the individual provinces of the Kurdistan Region.

FYI

The Kurdistan Regional Government has outlined specific demands for the upcoming 2027 Iraqi federal budget bill to protect its financial rights following a period of prolonged fiscal uncertainty. 

On population allocations, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has stated that the region accounts for 14.14% of Iraq's total population, leading the KRG to argue that any allocation below its historical 12.67% benchmark is unfair, particularly as political maneuverings in Baghdad have previously dropped actual funding below 7%. 

Furthermore, a central KRG requirement dictates that public sector salaries must be completely separated from political disputes. 

Bilateral talks are also focused on contract worker permanency, new job allocations, and the long-standing freeze on employee promotions. 

In the meantime, a KRG delegation is in Baghdad, with Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs Abdullah Haji Mahmoud telling Channel8 that they have proposed raising the monthly pension for civilian martyrs to 600,000 dinars, while pushing to increase the payout for frontline and genocide martyrs, as well as political prisoners, to 1.2 million dinars. 

All preparations had been finalized for a KRG delegation to travel to Baghdad on Monday to launch a fresh round of talks and iron out the 2027 budget share; however, the visit was postponed due to the ongoing processing of several official documents.

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