Tehran, Iran, January 1
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
The Joint Commission of the Iranian Parliament has ratified an overview of the national budget bill which the government recently handed over to the legislative body.
According to government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the parliamentary body approved of the government request to lift a weight of 880 trillion rials ($27 billion) of cash subsidies from the shoulders of the government, IRIB news agency reported January 1.
The cash subsidies are monthly payments by the government to each Iranian individual. The payment is, according to the current price of dollar against the rial, a little over $10, paid every 45 days. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh once said the cash subsidies have crippled Iran’s developmental projects since they leave nothing of the country’s oil revenues behind.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Nobakht said the government has estimated the country’s economic growth to hit 7.7 percent in the next Iranian fiscal year (to start March 21).
According to Nobakht, in the current Iranian year Iran attracted $5.7 billion foreign investment into 113 projects.
He also added that a domestic investment rate of -18 percent has improved to -8 percent over the past one year.