Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Share of Iran's National Development Fund (NDF) from the country's oil revenues has been decreased by 11 percent in next year's(to start on March 21, 2015) budget bill which was submitted to parliament on Dec. 7.
Iran will transfer 20 percent of oil and gas revenues to the fund in next fiscal year, according to the budget bill, the country's Fars news agency reported.
The Islamic Republic allocated 31 percent of oil and gas incomes to the fund in current fiscal year budget.
The government has offered that to not implement the annual 3 percent share increase of the NDF from oil incomes in next year which was predicted in the Fifth Five-year Socio Economic Development Plan (2011-2015).
The NDF is Iran's sovereign wealth fund. It was founded in 2011 to replace Oil Stabilization Fund.
Based on Article 84 of the Fifth Five-year Socio Economic Development Plan (2011-2015), the National Development Fund was established to transform oil and gas revenues to productive investment for future generation. The money will increasingly be deposited in domestic banks.
Accordingly, 20 percent of oil income is to be transferred to the National Development Fund and this percentage increase 3 percent annually until the end of the fifth development plan.
The NDF's reserves were around $54 billion when President Hassan Rouhani took the office in August 2013.
Last August Safdar Hosseini, the chairman of the board of directors of the NDF said that the fund's assets reaches $64.8 billion.
Umid Niayesh is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh