ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Region has not received even seven percent of Iraq’s annual budget in a single year since 2014, despite consistently being allocated 12.67 percent of the total in the budget bills, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) finance minister said Tuesday.

“Since 2014, the Kurdistan Region has received only around two percent from the allocated 12.67 percent, with 2024 being the best year when we reached six percent. It has not reached seven percent in any year,” Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab told The New Region.

The KRG earlier in the day demanded that its 14.14 percent population share be used to determine its allocation in Iraq’s 2027 federal budget, accusing Baghdad of lowering the Region’s population percentage in the census through disputed calculations.

The KRG said the federal government has violated several agreements related to the census, including sidelining joint census teams in the Kurdistan Region, manipulating statistics, and rejecting data.

It accused Baghdad of “illegally lowering the Region's percentage under the pretext of excluding the number of displaced persons and refugees.”

The finance minister further clarified that disputed areas in Duhok, Sulaimani, and Mosul provinces, as well as some 500,000 displaced people have been cut out of the Region’s percentage in the census.

Janab said “all the injustices committed against pensioners, the matter of frozen promotions and employees' seniority allowances, discrimination in employment, and the equalization of salaries across classes,” have all been included in the draft budget law.

In mid-September, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the Region’s share of federal allocations must be based on its actual population size, which he put at 14.14 percent of Iraq’s total population, arguing that anything below that figure is “unfair”.

In November 2024, the federal Council of Ministers approved a series of measures requested by the Kurdistan Region, including registering people in disputed areas according to their original places of residence and comparing census data with interior ministry records, including the 1957 census and its updates. The measures also called for the federal and Kurdistan Region planning authorities to jointly oversee the comparison process and maintain a special record for disputed areas.

The 1957 census is particularly significant in the disputed areas because it predates the Baathist-era demographic change policies that included the forced displacement of Kurds and the settlement of Arab families in areas including Kirkuk province and other territories now claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil. The 1957 figures are seen as an important historical reference for assessing demographic changes in those areas.

The population figure has direct implications for the Kurdistan Region’s share in the federal budget. The KRG has said the issue also affects its financial and constitutional entitlements and other forms of representation within federal institutions.