A pile of Iraqi dinar banknotes (File)
PM:03:37:25/07/2021
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SULAIMANI — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime
Minister Masrour Barzani announced on Sunday (July 25) that public sector
workers will be paid their full salaries for the first time in more than a
year.
Following a meeting of the KRG Council of Ministers, Barzani
said that workers will be paid without cuts starting from July, if Baghdad continues
to send money to the Region.
Under an agreement with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi,
the KRG has begun to receive a monthly stipend of 200 billion Iraqi dinars
($137 million) per month.
The agreement, however, does not resolve major budget disagreements
between Erbil and Baghdad, which have prevented the implementation of the 2021
Federal Budget Law. KRG officials are keen to note that the stipend is not the
Region’s budget share.
Samir Hawrami, an advisor to KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad
Talabani, said that salary disbursements will begin on Monday.
During 2020, the KRG struggled to pay salaries to its public
sector workers, missing five monthly disbursements entirely and cutting four
others by nearly a quarter. Government employees have had their pay cut by
twenty-one percent each month so far this year.
The cuts have had a significant effect on the economy of the
Kurdistan Region because of the KRG’s role as the Region’s most important
employer.
In a study on the economic impact of COVID-19, the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) reported in June that monthly household employment
income in the Kurdistan Region dropped by 31 percent between March and December
2020, which it attributed largely to the government salary cuts.
The drop was just twelve percent in federal Iraq.
Barzani acknowledged that the KRG is responsible of
providing good living conditions and services to all citizens and sought to
defend his government’s economic policies.
The KRG has more than $30 billion in debt and financial obligations,
but no savings, Barzani reported last autumn.
(NRT Digital Media)