Taxes from Kurdistan nearly equals all Iraqi governorates combined: Stop

Shafaq News/ The Stop Economic Organization on Thursday said that the taxes collected from the Kurdistan region are nearly equal to those collected in all other Iraqi governorates.

Ari Abdullah, the head of Stop, told Shafaq News that "the taxes collected by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from the citizens are equal to what was collected by the other Iraqi governorates combined."

He added that, "according to a Stop report, fifteen Iraqi governorates collected nearly two trillion dinars in the first six months of 2023."

"The governorates had set the value of internal revenues in the federal budget at 15 trillion dinars. It has been six month, what has been collected by KRG alone is equal to what has been collected from all the governorates so far."

Abdullah said that "due to the financial crisis that the region went through, the government issued about 34 decrees on tax augmentation from 2016 to 2021." He added, "the ninth cabinet of the regional government was able to implement all of those decisions."

Abdullah called on the region's government to "reconsider its tax and customs procedures, as the taxes imposed on citizens are much higher than those in Iraq. Many professionals have left their professions and some have moved to central and southern Iraq due to the high taxes in Kurdistan."