Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 25
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian administration will pay all of its debts to private sector contractors in next Iranian calendar year, which will start on March 21, 2014, vice president for planning and strategic supervision, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said, Iranian Tasnim news portal reported on Dec. 24.
Nobakht went on to say that, Iranian administration owes about 100 trillion rials (about $4 billion based on official rate of 24,770 rials per each USD) to private and cooperative sectors.
He underlined that the administration has allocated some 160 trillion rials (about $6.5 billion) in the next year's budget bill for paying the debts. The principal debt to non-state sector and its interest would be paid in form of treasury Islamic bonds and participation bonds, he added.
Earlier in Dec. 21, the administration announced that its debts to contractors are less than $3.6 billion and other figures which have been reported by the media are not reliable.
Tasnim news portal quoted secretary of Iranian Confederation of Employers Associations, Mohammad Ataradian as saying on Dec.17, that the government owes contractors some $12 billion.
Early in October, Iranian MP Abolfazl Torabi said that government's debts to contractors hit $28 billion.