Kurdish MPs: 5 checkpoints skim money for top party officials



ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish MPs have called five checkpoints in the Kurdistan Region “illegal,” claiming they were established by high ranking political party officials to skim money. The finance committee in parliament through an official letter has asked the government and the parliament to put an end to the practice.


"These are the powerful individuals within KDP, PUK, and Gorran. It is not the parties themselves doing this,” Izzat Sabir, a PUK MP and the head of the finance committee in the KRG’s parliament, told Rudaw.


Sabir condemned the action and calling it directly-imposed taxation.


The checkpoints named were:


- Hassan Sham, near the Khazir Bridge (Erbil)


- Taq Taq-Shwan, between Taq Taq and Shwan sub-district near the Shiwa Sur Bridge (Erbil)


- Debaga, on the Sargaran road (Erbil)


- Tasluja (Sulaimani)


- Fishkhabur, on the border with Syria (Dohuk)


The amounts vary from checkpoint to checkpoint, but generally oil tankers get charged $1,000, a truck carrying iron scraps from Mosul gets charged $400 while each ton of foodstuffs or goods is charged $25.


"After the loss of Kirkuk and its oil fields, the interests of some officials, some groups and some individuals in the Region changed, they have resorted to establishing illegal checkpoints, illegal companies, illegally charging heavy trucks and drivers in most of areas of the KRG [administration],” claimed Sabir.