Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9
By Kamyar Eghbal – Trend:
An Iranian deputy minister of economy has described the country’s scheme to accelerate the process of privatization as a “social plan” to involve ordinary people in the country’s economy.
“The Justice Shares Scheme is more like a social plan, rather than an economic scheme, that is, we are developing a culture for people's shareholding and lowering class differences in society. The economic effect of this plan is secondarily important,” Mir Ali-Ashraf Abdollah Porihoseini, the deputy minister of economy and head of the Privatization Organization, told Trend on the sidelines of a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei back in 2007 tasked the government officials with implementing the policies outlined in the amendment of Article 44 in the Islamic Republic’s Constitution in a move to facilitate privatization. Under the decision some 80 percent of the state-run companies subject to Article 44 of the Constitution would be privatized, 40 percent of which should be conducted through the Justice Shares Scheme and the rest through the stock exchange system.
“So far, out of a total of 49 million people who are eligible for this benefit, 14 million people have not notified us about their banking account details. In addition, two million people have passed away. This is while paying dividends to their heirs needs research and some steps, and benefit is practically distributed to 33 million people today, and those 14 million will receive their benefit after announcing their account,” Porihoseini added.
Speaking about the state of privatization of Iranian economy, he added that privatization is a requirement for the Iranian economy and, as the Iranian president has said, Iran's economy needs surgery, one of these surgeries is the privatization of the economy.
“As long as volume of the government work is not reduced … economy will not be formed and the private sector will not be active, and our economic growth will be limited, and we all have come to the conclusion that privatization is a must.”
Justice shares are a kind of subsidy that were established by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his first term of office, in which it was decided that shares of some state-owned companies should be transferred to low-income part of society. This plan had some problems, although now the first period of payment is about to be done, the definitive transfer of shares of 49 companies to people and the right to buy and sell these shares requires approval of the parliament, which is due to be done soon.
“Today, 11 years after launching the Justice Shares Scheme in the administration of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first profit of this stock was paid by 35 banks to the beneficiaries of the scheme, with a profit of 150,000 tomans ($34.8 according to free market rates) at this stage,” Porihoseini earlier told the press conference.
“Due to shortcomings in collection of all funds from 49 companies involved in this project, one third of this profit, which amounts to 50,000 tomans ($11.6), today will be in their accounts.”