Azerbaijan, Baku, September 4 /Trend, N. Umid, S. Isayev
About 70 percent of Iran's municipalities are bankrupt, Iranian Ministry of Interior, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said, Iranian Jahanesanat newspaper reported.
He went on to note that administration cannot allocate assets to municipalities from country's public budget.
"Very low incomes of councils and increasing prices caused the municipalities to go bankrupt," he explained.
In June, Iranian media outlets quoted Deputy of the Tehran Mayor Hossein Mohammadpur Zandi as saying Iranian government is in $652-million debt (based on official 12,260 rial to dollar rate) to Tehran Municipality.
"Government organizations should pay off their debts, however they refuse to pay the funds and this causes big problems for Tehran, he said.
Mohammadpur also stated that the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government did not pay attention to this issue for 8 years.
Tehran Municipality's budget for the solar year (March 21, 2013-Marth 21, 2014) was ratified at $8.5 billion.
The city and village councils of Iran are local establishments that are elected by public vote in all cities and villages across the country. Council members in each city or village are elected for a four-year term.
The councils are tasked with helping the Islamic Republic's social, economic, cultural and educational advancement by encouraging public participation in social affairs. The city councils also elect city mayors.
It should be recalled that city council of Tehran would elect capital's new mayor next week.
Until now, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has been serving as the current Mayor of Tehran. He is a former military and police commander, who is serving his second term as Tehran's mayor since his first election in 2005.
Next week he will compete as conservative's nominee for the next Tehran Mayor term against Mohsen Hashemi who is a reformist nominee for Tehran Municipality.
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