Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
The Iranian parliament plans to give the government permission to deliver incomplete construction projects to the private sector the next Iranian calendar year (to start March 21).
Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that some 4,000 trillion rials (some $150.94 billion based on the official exchange rate of US dollar) is required to finish the incomplete projects, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on Jan. 11.
"We should also consider the inflation, which will definitely increase the figure," he explained.
"It is while the country's annual construction budget is around 300 trillion rials (some $11.32 billion based on the official exchange rate of US dollar)," Larijani noted.
The official added that some banks have already declared their readiness to invest in the incomplete construction projects.
Iran is facing budget deficit in the current year due to a falling trend of oil prices in global markets. This has caused the country to halt most of the construction projects.
A member of the Construction Commission of Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Alireza Khosravi told Trend Agency on Dec. 12 that next year's budget plan envisages 480 trillion rials (some $18.11 billion based on the official exchange rate of US dollar) for construction projects.
However, the MP said that the construction budget of next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21) is not enough to finish the incomplete projects.
"In the current year, we had 3,000 incomplete projects, but we managed to allocate budget to only 300 of them," he said.
"The trend will continue next year, and we will not be able to fund all the incomplete projects," he added.
The Iranian government submitted a $293-billion budget bill to the Parliament on Dec.7. The budget of funding for running the government is $93.7 billion.