ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A high-level Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss the disputed 2027 federal budget with federal authorities, as it nears submission to the parliament.

A major point of contention in the proposed budget is the Kurdistan Region’s share, with the initial draft allocating 12.68 percent. The KRG has insisted that its share reflects its actual population, which is 14.14 percent of Iraq’s total.

The KRG delegation is set to meet with relevant authorities in Baghdad on Sunday, Sherwan Dubardani, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, told The New Region.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi held a meeting with KDP lawmakers in Baghdad to discuss Iraq's upcoming 2027 budget draft.

Erbil and Baghdad have held several meetings on the budget but there has been no announced progress. 

During the meeting with Zaidi, the premier "reaffirmed the government’s commitment to securing the salaries of public sector employees in the Kurdistan Region—ensuring they are treated on par with their counterparts in other ministries and provinces," with Baghdad's failure to disburse public salaries for the Region's civil servants on time having long been a point of contention between the two governments.

In late October, a high-level delegation from the Iraqi government met with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Zakho to discuss the budget issue, among several other outstanding Erbil-Baghdad disputes. 

Barzani told reporters following the meeting that “we have not reached a final result but we hope that the results make both sides happy,” adding that “negotiations continue.”

The budget draft is set to be presented to the legislature in mid-November, Uday Awad, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee, said in late October, coming after it was reportedly returned to the finance ministry by the Iraqi Council of Ministers for revision.