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Iran excludes 10 million people from receiving cash subsidies

Business Materials 1 August 2014 12:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.1

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran has excluded 10 million people from receiving cash subsidies.

Iranian finance minister Ali Tayyebnia said a list of high-income people has been prepared and these people will be excluded from receiving cash subsidies gradually, the Mehr news agency reported on August 1.

Tayyebnia noted that it is not fair that all people receive cash subsidies. He also added that the government plans to expand insurance services and support domestic producers.

On May 20, Head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce's Export Committee Asadollah Asgaroladi said just 15 million Iranian are eligible to receive cash subsidies.

Despite the demands of the Iranian officials, only 2.4 million citizens of the country voluntarily gave up on receiving cash subsidies.

Iran's State IRNN TV quoted the spokesperson of the Iranian government, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, as saying on April 23 that some 73 million Iranian citizens registered for receiving cash subsidies, while the government expected 30 million people would skip the offer.

On April 21, Iranian vice president for Executive Affairs Mohammad Shariatmadari said that the number of people who actually gave up receiving cash subsidies was not satisfactory.

The subsidy registration website asked people to announce their monthly income if it is:

- below 6 million rials
- between 6 million and 10 million rials
- between 10 million and 20 million rials
- between 20 million and 25 million rials
- or above 25 million rials

Iranian media outlets reported that most of the registered applicants have announced that their income is less than 6 million rials per month.

The administration of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implemented the first stage of the subsidy reform plan toward the end of 2010 in an attempt to wean the country off food and fuel subsidies.

In the first stage the government paid 45,500 rials (about $18) to citizens to compensate for a partial cut of subsidies.

It is estimated that the government will acquire 480 trillion rials (about $19.3 billion) in the current Iranian calendar year (March 2014-March 2015) in revenues through the implementation of the second phase of the economic reform plan.

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