Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Total cash subsidy payments in Iran have reached 1,230 trillion rials (about $49.5 billion) since the plan started in December 2010, ISNA reported on December 15.
The 34th cash subsidy payment was deposited to banking accounts of breadwinners of nearly 74.5 million Iranian families on Saturday night.
The subsidy reform plan pays out 455,000 rials (about $18 based on the U.S. official exchange rate of 24,800 rials) to every Iranian, while eliminating subsidies for fuels and some commodities.
The government of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implemented the first stage of the subsidy reform plan towards the end of 2010 in an attempt to wean the country off food and fuel subsidies. At the time, Ahmadinejad called it the "biggest economic plan of the past 50 years".
It allows the government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of five years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts.
On October 13, the website of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) quoted MP Abbas Rajaee as saying that more than 30 percent of cash subsidies, which are paid to people in Iran, should be cut.
Through cutting cash subsidies of high-income strata of the society, the problem of budget deficit can be resolved, he added.
Paying cash subsidies to people is poisonous for the national economy, he said. Cutting subsidies of all but villagers and pensioners and those who are under coverage of welfare organizations will not be problematic, he explained.