Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 11
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
The Iranian government will exclude four million citizens from the list of people receiving monthly cash subsidies, Ali Rabiei, minister of labor, said.
In line with the parliament’s approval, four million people will no longer get the cash subsidies, Rabiei said, Mehr news agency reported Aug. 11.
Almost two million people have been already delisted, Rabiei said, adding only 20 percent of the excluded people pleaded against cutting their cash subsidies.
The cash subsidy is a monthly payment of about $15 paid to about 70 million Iranians.
The subsidies pose a great burden to the government's oil-dependent income. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh last year said they exhaust the oil income and hamper all developmental projects.
The Iranian government every year pays some $13.8 billion as cash subsidies.
Rabiei further said the Iranian government does not investigate bank accounts of citizens to identify people with high incomes.
However, he added that the administration monitors economic activities of the citizens as well as their property including houses and cars to identify the high income people who will be excluded from the list.
A person’s travels are also a factor studied in this regard, he said.