BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.18
Trend:
The official foreign currency rate in the budget bill for the new Iranian year (starts March 21, 2021) needs to be increased step by step, said a Member of Parliament's Planning and Budget Commission.
"Despite parliament dissatisfaction with the budget bill for the new Iranian year, the government has not implemented specific correction in the budget plan and only made suggestions that are creating more costs," Behrouz Mohebi told Trend in an interview.
"The government has preferred to sell bonds while it’s predicted official USD rate in the budget is 110,000 rial, our colleagues tried to increase the rate to 175,000 rials. The Budget Integration Commission has also approved to eliminate the current official USD rate of 42,000 rials, " he said.
"The government has predicted 110,000 rial USD rate in the budget but it has created a loophole to calculate the price up to 250,000 rials per USD in some cases," he added.
Mohebi went on to say that the government reforms in the budget are not justifiable, and it has a different view in its budget predictions, sale of 2.3 million barrels of oil per day is not real figure during sanctions and if this plan does not work the government would sell bonds.
He also pointed out that the Guardian Council has also noted the unrealistic budget figures and has unofficially mentioned to the parliament that it would implement serious changes if the parliament does not.
"The parliament would certainly implement serious reform in the budget plan and create new revenue resources that would possibly be around $47 billion. The commission would also use the parliament speakers Mr. Ghalibaf's opinion on the review of the budget bill," he said.