Azerbaijan, Baku, Mar. 31/ Trend F.Milad/
If the Iranian administration does not increase the budget for paying cash subsidies in the second phase of the Subsidy Reform Plan, it will have to remove subsidies of 29 million people, according to Khabaronline website.
In the past calendar year, which ended on March 19, the government allocated 400 trillion rials (some $32 billion) to pay 455,000 rials to each Iranian monthly as cash subsidies.
So, if the government does not boost the budget, it should cut cash handouts of 29 million people, as it has been announced that the subsidy figure will rise to 735,000 rials in the second phase.
The second phase of implementing the plan has envisaged removing subsidies of some three million Iranian families. The Iranian government is planning to pay more cash subsidies to the economically vulnerable strata and cut subsidies of the well-off families.
The plan, launched in December 2010, allows the Iranian 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.