Tehran, Iran, September 30
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran removed 200,000 people from the list of those, who have been receiving cash subsidies in the past five months, according to Deputy Labor Minister Ahmad Meydari.
However, the government does not mean to carry out a mass deduction of subsidy receivers and it will only delist households with a minimum income of 350 million rials (about $10,000) per year, IRIB news agency quoted him as having said September 30.
The law obliged the government to delist 24 million people by the end of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 20), he underlined.
The law to delist millions from cash subsidies receivers was introduced this year by the mostly right-wing Parliament aiming to deplete President Hassan Rouhani’s social support a year ahead of presidential elections.
However, Meydari noted, that the Parliament later removed the penalty.
The Iranian Parliament started a new term in July with a much more moderate composition than the previous term.
“The fact that the government has delisted 200,000 people, shows that it intends by no means to conduct a mass deduction,” he stressed.
The cash subsidies plan was initiated by former president Mahmud Ahmadijenad as a monthly payment of about $12. Later officials said the plan puts a heavy burden on the government, calling for an end to it.