Kurdistan’s Cabinet is enforcing new cuts to the salaries of its armed forces as part of the austerity measures to cope with the financial crisis that has recently deepened due to a loss in oil revenues. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) adopted a new payroll system in 2016 and introduced significant cuts in the salaries of government employees, as independent oil exports were not enough to offset the double hit from the drop in the global oil price and increased cost of providing services after the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group’s invasion in 2014.