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Iranian Majlis votes to cancel 2nd phase of subsidy reform plan

Business Materials 11 November 2012 17:12 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.11/ Trend F.Milad/

Majlis approved general outlines of a bill to cancel the implementation of the second phase of the subsidy reform plan.

168 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, 30 voted against, and 20 abstained.

The Majlis had approved the ingle-urgency bill on October 7.

On May 15, the Majlis decided to increase the amount of subsidies to families in cash or in kind, a move which allowed the administration to begin the implementation of the second stage of the subsidy reform plan.

Accordingly, the administration approved to increase the per capita cash subsidies by 275,000 rials to reach 610,000 rials.

The subsidy reform plan pays out $37 to Iranians while eliminating subsidies for fuels and some commodities.

When the plan started in December 2010, it was expected to cause about $32 billion in liquidity. But greater demand for the cash subsidies and the government's money borrowed from the central bank to pay for the subsidies led to $45 billion in liquidity.

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