Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Umid Niayesh- Trend:
The Iranian administration has decided to implement the second phase of the subsidy reform plan by April 2014, head of the Parliamentary Commission for Support of Production, Hamid Reza Fouladgar said, Iranian IRIB news agency reported on Feb. 19.
Iranian parliament permitted the government to implement the plan during the next Iranian calendar year (will start on March 21), he said.
The subsidy reform plan pays 455,000 rials (about $18 based on the U.S. dollar official exchange rate of 24,800 rials) to Iranians, eliminating subsidies for fuels and some commodities.
Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohammad Shariatmadari will be in charge of carrying out the second phase of the subsidy reform plan.
The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported on Jan. 28 that the Iranian administration has once again asked rich families to voluntarily give up receiving cash subsidies.
Mohsen Bahrami Arzi, an advisor to the vice president for executive affairs, said on Jan. 28 that the government expects about 30 percent of Iranian families to give up receiving cash subsidies.
Head of Parliamentary Economic Committee Gholamreza Mesbahi Moqaddam has said the subsidy reform plan put into place by the administration of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has created $13 billion more in liquidity than was anticipated.
MP Ahmad Tavakkoli has criticized the current method of cash subsidy payments, saying that paying subsidies in cash to people is carried out just in Iran. Paying cash subsidies to all groups of people with different incomes should be revised given that the administration is facing a budget deficit.