Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.5 / Trend F.Mehdi/
Iran has approved three trillion rials (about $245 million) budget to support production units which have been damaged by the global economic sanctions imposed on the country, ISNA quoted Iranian deputy industry minister Masoud Movahedi as saying.
One third of the approved budget has so far been allocated, he added.
Since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2012), 1.5 trillion rials (about $122 million) has been paid to industrial units.
The Iranian government and parliament have agreed to finance production sector projects using revenues from the National Development Fund (NDF) and oil exports.
The NDF has allocated $3 billion worth of its assets to pay facilities in loans to the agriculture and industry sectors, the NDF's deputy manager said in September 2012.
Mohammad-Qasem Hosseini added that the sum will be turned into rials to finance domestic projects in industry, mine, water, and agricultural projects, the Fars News Agency reported.
In May 2012, the industry, mine and trade minister said that10n per cent of the NDF's assets will be allocated for supporting the domestic production sector.
Mehdi Ghazanfari told IRNA that three per cent of assets of specialised industry and agriculture banks will be also paid to boost the production sector.
According to the current year's budget law, 10 per cent of the NDF's assets should be turned into rials and be invested in the agriculture sector and 10 per cent in the industrial sector
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
U.S. sanctionscame into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.
In October, the EU approved another major package of economic sanctions on Iran.