Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 9/ Trend M. Moezzi/
The Iranian government won't pay cash subsidies to industrial plants, IRNA reported the spokesman for the economic reform plan as saying.
This doesn't mean the government won't support this sector, Mohammad Reza Farzin told the IRNA. A nine-month report on the targeted subsidies programme shows that the government has given support to such plants, Mr Farzin told IRNA. There could now be a financial impact on the Iranian people.
When asked about families whose cash payments have been stopped, Farzin said they should go to the Organisation for Targeted Subsides as the party responsible for payments. Those citizens approved for subsidies shouldn't have their payments stopped.
Some of the complaints about citizens not receiving their cash payments have to do with the armed forces and police personnel who receive their payment from their employers. Iran's target subsidies' programme has paid out nearly $8 billion more in subsidies than it has earned, Fars news cited a member of the parliament's planning and budget commission Moussa Al-reza Servati as saying.
The Iranian government pays each citizen $45 a month as a compensation for a part of its commodities and energy subsides which were cut in December 2010.
The targeted subsidies programme has paid out more than $25 billion (about 250 trillion rials), on a budget of about $18 billion (180 trillion rials). The $8 billion difference has been borrowed from Iran's Central Bank and must be repaid to the treasury by increasing prices for energy carriers.
Iran's parliament reported earlier that President Ahmadinejad's government faces a $15.6 billion deficit to pay its citizens, the Iranian daily Shahrgh reported previously.