Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
More than $1.7 billion of government shares were sold in Iran to the private sector in the past Iranian fiscal year, which ended on March 20.
Some $107 million of the shares were sold on the main Stock Market and $960 million of the shares were sold on the Over-The-Counter Market, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on April 12.
Moreover, some $640 million of the shares were sold in block offering bids.
The government has envisioned a large privatization program in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of state-owned firms each year.
Under the present interpretation of the Article 44 of Iran's Constitution, hundreds of state-owned companies have been privatized.
More than 1,320 trillion rials (about $38 billion) of state shares have been divested in Iran since Iranian year 1384 (began in March 2005).
Around $8.2 billion of the shares were paid by the administration to its individual and legal creditors.
Gholamhossein Shafei, chairman of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines said on Jan. 5 that according to the General Inspectorate Organization, just 5 percent of the shares have been really transferred to the private sector.
The privatization process has been implemented contrary to objectives of the Article 44 of the Constitution, he added.
