Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 29/ Trend M. Moezzi
Iran's economic minister said the government has no plans to move ahead with the second phase of its subsidy reform program.
Seyed Shamseddin Hosseini, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, said the country needed to reach a consensus before moving on to the second phase of eliminating subsidies, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported.
Launched in December 2011, the subsidy program pays out $37 (USD), to Iranians while eliminating subsidies for energy carriers and some commodities. Phase two of the program was to usher in higher prices for energy carriers like gas, electricity, petrol, and water, and was slated to come into effect this year (Iran's solar year ends on March 19).
On September 26, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moqaddam, who heads the Majlis's (parliament) Economic Committee said the subsidy reform plan has created $13 billion more in liquidity than was anticipated. The subsidies program, which was supposed to pay for itself, has a $16 billion deficit.
Mr. Hosseini also denied that the administration will receive money from the newly launched Iran Forex Center for use in the subsidy reform program. The government launched operating the currency exchange center on Monday in an effort to stop the rial's (Iran's national currency) plunge in value.
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