Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.15
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Ten million high-income Iranians have been identified so far who can be excluded from receiving cash subsidies.
Iran's economy minister Ali Tayyebnia said that a large number of people have not applied for receiving cash subsidies in the second phase of the subsidy reform plan, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on April 15.
Registration for receiving cash subsidies in the second phase of the plan started on April 9 and will last till April 20.
The Iranian parliament (Majlis) approved the government implementing the second phase of the subsidy reform plan at the beginning of the second quarter of the next Iranian calendar year (to start March 21).
The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported on January 28 that the Iranian administration has once again asked rich families to voluntarily give up receiving cash subsidies.
Mohsen Bahrami Arzi, an advisor to the vice president for executive affairs, said on January 28 that the government expects about 30 percent of Iranian families to give up receiving cash subsidies.
"Currently the number of people who receive cash subsidies is even more than the country's population," he said.
"Many have migrated to foreign countries but they still receive cash subsidies, some have two or more ID cards and some are foreign nationals," Bahrami Arzi explained.
President Rouhani's chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, said in November that the Iranian administration is not going to cut the cash subsidies of rich families since identifying such families is a kind of breach of their privacy.
"There are two substitute methods. The first is that affluent families give up receiving the subsidies voluntarily. And the second is that the administration creates more jobs for people," Nahavandian said.
The implementation of the second phase of the subsidy reform plan will not lead to a sharp rise in the inflation rate, the advisor to the Iranian president said.
Although fuel prices rose by 600 percent in the first phase of the plan, but the inflation rate increased by 10 percent, Mohammad Kordbacheh said in an interview which was published by ISNA news agency on Sunday.
"Fuel prices are planned to be increased by 60 percent on the average. Therefore, it will not lead to a hike in the inflation rate."
A clause in the budget bill for next fiscal year, which started on March 21, calls for steep price increases to save 630 trillion rials ($25.3 billion at the official exchange rate) annually in subsidy payments.