Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
The Iranian parliament approved the national budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year, which will start on March 21, 2018.
The bill was approved on Feb 22 by 148 MPs voted in favor, 38 against, and 3 abstained, Iran's state-run IRINN TV reported.
Next year's national budget bill is based on an oil price of $55 per barrel and a projected average exchange rate of 35,000 rials to the US dollar for the fiscal year.
The overall budget ceiling is set at about 12,175 trillion rials, with government spending accounted for 4,432 trillion rials.
Meanwhile, the administration earmarked government spending for the current fiscal year (started March 2017) of 3,710 trillion rials.
MPs approved the revised outlines of the budget on Jan. 31. The bill was earlier rejected during the session of the parliament on Jan. 28, with 120 votes against it.
Now the budget bill will go to the Guardian Council, the constitutional supervisory body, for ratification before becoming law.