Iran mulls draft budget for next year
By Sara Rajabova
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has submitted the draft budget for the next Iranian fiscal year (beginning March 21) to the parliament.
President Rouhani submitted the budget to the parliament on December 7 while noting that curbing inflation is the top priority in his administration’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, Press TV reported.
“I once again explicitly announce that the current administration considers cutting inflation among its great achievements and is resolute to safeguard this great accomplishment, therefore the next year’s budget bill has been drafted with the aim of controlling the inflation,” he said.
Rouhani said his administration seeks to maintain the current declining trend of money supply in the country in the coming years in an effort to help rein in inflation.
He said curtailing inflation is key to putting an end to stagnation and paving the way for economic prosperity. According to Rouhani, Iran is expected to witness an inflation rate below 20 percent at the end of the current fiscal year in March.
Rouhani also added that the administration has taken necessary steps to decline negative effects of the oil price countdown. He said about $24 billion of oil revenues is forecasted for next fiscal year, adding share of oil revenues in the next year’s budget bill has decreased to 31.5 percent compared to 45 percent of oil revenues in current year’s budget.
Next year's national budget bill is based on an oil price of $72 per barrel and a projected average exchange rate of 28,500 rials to the U.S. dollar for the fiscal year.
He further said Iran is poised to increase non-oil exports to help boost economic growth in the wake of falling oil prices.
The total budget figure for the next Iranian year stands at around $311 billion or IRR 8,380 trillion ($ 1= IRR 26,936). The budget bill for the next year is 4.3 percent higher than that of the current year.
The funding for running the government was set at 2.673 quadrillion rials (about $99 billion).
The administration has allocated 461 trillion rials(about $17.17 billion) for development projects in the next year’s budget.
Implementation of the Economy of Resistance policies, detente in foreign policy, management of public sector's debts, continued execution of the targeted subsidies plan, reduction of inflation rate and improving people's purchasing power and social welfare, are among the important approaches adopted in the budget bill for the next year, according to Iranian media outlets.
Lawmakers will have ten days to discuss the bill in the subcommittees of the parliament.
The subcommittees will review lawmakers' suggestions and finalize a report to a parliamentary ad hoc committee reviewing the budget within 15 days.The committee should discuss the budget bill within 15 days and provide its final report for a second reading in the next open session of the parliament.
Lawmakers will then discuss the final bill. If approved, the budget bill will then be sent to the country’s Guardian Council, whose approval is needed for the bill to be signed into law.