Baku, Azerbaijan, May 23
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Current expenses accounted for 86 percent of Iran's total budget in the past year.
Mahmoud Asgari Azad, Deputy Director of the Iranian President's Office for Management and Human Capital Development, said just 14 percent of the total budget was allocated to development projects, while the figure was 66 percent eight years ago, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on May 23.
He expressed his dissatisfaction over 51 percent expansion of the administrative staff during the past eight years, saying this year $9.8 billion will be allocated to compensate for the budget deficit of the retired pension funds, equaling 34 percent of the country's total revenues.
Provided that the country's population remains the same, $23 billion should be allocated in the next eight years, he noted.
Iran's current year budget bill has set the ceiling budget at $315 billion.
The figure shows 8.4 percent growth year on year.
Meanwhile, the national development budget has been announced to be $78 billion, a 240 percent rise compared to the year before.
According to government sources, the bill has been devised on an average oil price of 100 dollars per barrel and exchange rate of 26,000 rials per USD.
Iran's next calendar year starts on March 21, 2014.
USD official exchange rate is currently 25,550 rials.