BAGHDAD, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament said Saturday that it endorsed a bill for the country's 2018 federal budget with about 77 billion U.S. dollars and a deficit of about 10 billion dollars.
A statement by the parliament said 187 lawmakers attended a session chaired by Speaker Salim al-Jubouri, and passed the 58-article budget for 2018.
The proposed budget was based on an average oil price of 46 dollars per barrel and export of 3.888 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), including 250,000 bpd exported from the Kurdish region, according to the statement.
The approval came after heated debates among various political blocs over multiple controversial items, including the 17-percent allocation from the national budget for the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The government has rejected the regular 17-percent allocation for the Kurdish region, but decided to allocate a share for each of the three regional Kurdish provinces according to their population, the budget showed.
The Kurds, however, are willing to accept anything less than a 17-percent share, saying there has not been a census in Iraq since 1987.
According to Iraqi law, the annual budget must be approved by the Iraqi presidency following the parliamentary approval.
Iraqi economy relies on oil for more than 90 percent of its revenues.
In early 2017, Iraqi Minister of Oil Jabbar Luaiby said the proven oil reserves in the country had increased to 153 billion barrels from the previously estimated 143.1 billion barrels.
