Tehran, Iran, Sept. 29
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
What the government adopts as basis for the national budget is the ceiling that is considered for oil revenues as transfer of capital assets, and that number is $22 billion globally, Iranian government spokesman and Director of the Management and Planning Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said.
Keeping in harmony with that number and fixing the currency rate which will stand at about 30,000 rials, effort should be made to keep it a steady number, he said, Trend reported Sept. 29.
Pointing to an MP who recently said this year's budget has met 80 billion rials (each 29,950 rials making 1USD) deficit, Nobakht said it happened because from the time the government handed the bill to the Parliament until the bill was approved into law a long time had passed and oil prices fell from $70 to below $50 per barrel.
"Not only that, the Parliament increased the budget to 2,360 trillion rials," he noted.
He further said in the first six months of the current Iranian fiscal year (which started March 21), 111,920 billion rials development facilities were paid. The number had been 108,480 billion rials for the same period the preceding year.
According to the official, 83,430 billion rials was paid in cash, 21,000 billion rials in cash for managing border waters, and 8,490 billion rials as Islamic Treasury documents which were issued last week.
Iran will set the dollar exchange rate at 31,000 rials in the national budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2016-March 20, 2017), a September 18 report said.
Based on a timetable, the budget bill will be submitted to the parliament in the 11th fiscal month of Bahman (January 21-February 20, 2016).
MPs will have 45 days to ratify the budget bill, the source said.
The US dollar in Iran's free market is about 34,550 rials, while the official rate announced by the Central Bank of Iran is 29,955 rials.
Edited by CN