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Rouhani administration has paid $48B as cash subsidies

Business Materials 25 May 2015 17:26 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, May 25

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Deputy Director of Iran's Management and Planning Organization Alireza Saleh said that the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has so far paid 1,380 trillion rials, ($48 billion, each USD at 28,686 rials) as cash subsidies to individual Iranians.

He pointed out that since the subsidy reform plan started until the time the Rouhani administration came to office, the government's revenue of the plan had amounted to 95 trillion rials, IRNA news agency reported May 25.

He added that according to the law, half of the 95 trillion rials must have been given to Iranian individuals as cash subsidies and half must have gone to the government itself.

Not only did we pay the 95 trillion, we added to it another 45 trillion from the treasury to pay as cash subsidies, Saleh stated.

Iran is faced with a financial resources deficit to pay cash subsidies within the framework of the subsidy reform plan. Experts have said the administration should deal with the situation through either removing wealthy people from the list of subsidy receivers or increase fuel prices.

A large number of Iranians should be removed from the list of cash subsidy receivers, said Iranian Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht on May 5.

The subsidy reform plan, which was called "the biggest surgery to the economy", was put into operation in September 2010.

In another part of his speech, Saleh said that if the previous administration had managed situations well, the 45 trillion rials would have gone into construction projects instead.

The Iranian government has said many times that the cash subsidies take a large chunk of its revenues that could be instead used for developing national plans.

Saleh pointed out that in 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president, there were 1,300 projects underway which would have been complete in five years with 700 billion rials.

Not only did those projects not accomplish their goals but the number of unfinished projects rose to 2,900 by the end of the 10th administration and they needed 4 trillion rials to carry out, he stated.

Edited by CN

Follow the author on Twitter @mehdisepahvand

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