Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 2 / Trend, N. Umid, S. Isayev
Iranian ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad(2005-2013) used privatization for paying its debts, Iranian MP and head of parliament's Article 44 Commission, Hamid Reza Fouladgar said, Iranian Jahanesanat newspaper reported.
Parliament's Article 44 Commission is tasked with the execution of article 44 of the Iranian Constitution regarding privatization.
Fouladgar went on to note that, privatization policies during Ahmadinejad`s administration were not in line with article 44 of Iran's Constitution.
President Hassan Rouhani`s administration has suspended implementation of the article 44 for revising the previous administration's policies, he said, adding that, Iranian MP`s will hold meeting with Energy and Economic Affairs ministers during next week for making decisions about the issue.
Fouladgar said that, in the current solar year's (started on March21) budget's revision bill the figure of transferring state-owned companies to the private sector decreased from $14.91 billion (based on official rate of 24,800 rials per each USD) to $2.82 billion.
He went on to note that, some $6 billion worth of state-owned companies privatized during last solar year, which indicates that the last solar year budget's privatization figure($13.5 billions) realized by less than 50 percent.
On September 10, Iranian media outlets reported that Iranian economy minister Ali Tayyebnia has criticized the implementation of privatization policies by former administrations saying that just 10-15 percent of state shares have been really transferred to the private sector.
Therefore, the privatization process has not improved the efficiency of the private sector considerably, he added.
Many economic experts have expressed concern about transferring shares of state-run companies to semi-government entities which are neither governmental nor privately-owned.
During administration of Ahmadinejad, security and military organizations, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the semi-state companies affiliated with them have gained a big share of the privatized assets.
IRGC has grabbed a large portion of Iran's economy, especially in the oil and gas industries, and its former commanders occupy numerous government posts. As a result, most trade and oil contracts signed by Iran necessarily involve the IRGC.
