ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said Thursday that Baghdad has transferred only 42 percent of the Kurdistan Region’s budget share over the past seven years, withholding more than $36.6 billion that it says was due to the Region.

“The federal government has sent only 42 percent of the region's budget share over the past seven years,” the KRG finance ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the Kurdistan Region's share totaled more than 79 trillion dinars (around $60.3 billion) during the period after deducting sovereign and governance expenditures. Of that amount, Baghdad transferred “only 33 trillion dinars [around $25.2 billion] for employees' salaries, while withholding more than 48 trillion dinars [around $36.6 billion] from the Region's share.”

The ministry added that “no funds whatsoever were sent for operational expenditures or investment.”

Long-running disputes between Erbil and Baghdad over budget allocations, oil exports, and non-oil revenues have repeatedly delayed salary payments to the Kurdistan Region's public sector. The federal government has withheld salaries for several months in recent years, including November and December last year.

In September, Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement aimed at easing some of their financial disputes and ensuring public employees were not affected.

Under the deal, the KRG agreed to export its oil through Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) and transfer 120 billion dinars per month to Baghdad as the federal government's share of the Region's non-oil revenues, in exchange for regular monthly salary payments to Kurdistan Region civil servants.

Earlier this month, a KRG delegation held talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on outstanding financial issues between the two governments, including the mechanism for sharing the Kurdistan Region's non-oil revenues with the federal government.

The New Region has learned that the KRG delegation sought to renegotiate the agreement by reducing the monthly non-oil revenue transfers to the federal government.