Baku, Azerbaijan, March 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The Iranian parliament approved the generalities of the two months of a yearly budget bill for the next fiscal year (starts on March 21).
The bill was approved on March 14, by a majority of MP votes, Iran's state-run IRINN TV reported. The parliament will start reviewing the bill details on March 15.
President Hassan Rouhani introduced the budget bill for next fiscal year to the parliament in January, a month and a half later than he did in first and second years of his presidency.
When the proposed budget was handed to parliament, Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker called on the government to come up with two twelfth plan instead because the legislative body wouldn't have enough time to handle the full yearly budget bill.
On March 6, the Iranian MPs also agreed to review a bill which envisages postponing the implementation of the Sixth Development Plan in the country.
Iran's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan ends by March 21, 2016, meanwhile the parliament has not yet approved the sixth development plan.
Much of President Hassan Rouhani's economic reforms are outlined in the Sixth Development Plan (2016-20), which he introduced to the parliament in January, alongside the budget bill for the fiscal year ending 20 March 2017.