DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Monday ordered a review of the methods used to calculate the Kurdistan Region’s non-oil revenues and their transfer to the federal treasury, during an emergency meeting in Baghdad aimed at cutting government spending. 

During a meeting of the Ministerial Economic Council chaired by Sudani, the premier tasked the ministerial committee responsible for federal revenues to "review the calculations of non-oil revenues in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which are currently deposited in the account of the Ministry of Finance as a fixed amount, in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG]," read a statement from Sudani's office after the meeting. 

The decision came as part of broader efforts to address budget pressures through spending cuts and revenue measures, where Sudani also ordered a review to equalize the salaries and allowances across the country's presidency and parliament with the Prime Minister's Office.

Erbil and Baghdad came to an understanding in July to resume the disbursement of the Kurdistan Region's civil servants' salaries, after the Iraqi finance ministry said that it would no longer fund the salaries earlier in May, arguing that Erbil had already exhausted its budget share.

Negotiations following May involved the two governments hashing out their differences over domestic revenues, as well as agreeing on a mechanism to resume the Kurdistan Region's oil exports, which had been halted for over 30 months before they were resumed in September.

The agreement saw the Kurdistan Region transfer a fixed amount of its non-oil revenues to Baghdad, in exchange for disbursing the Region's civil servant salaries.

Despite reaching an agreement, the issues persisted as Baghdad has yet to disburse the Region's salaries for the months of October and November.