Tehran, Iran, October 17
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
The Iranian government plans to make the National Development Fund larger, according to spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht.
“This year (Iranian fiscal year to end March 20), 30 percent of revenues will go into the National Development Fund,” Nobakht told a press conference October 17.
In the week to October 6, Iran’s light crude settled down $1.69 at $55.31 per barrel and Iran Heavy, one of the country's main export grades, fell $1.26, or 2.3 percent to $53.27 per barrel.
Calculations by OPEC show the price of Iran's heavy crude rose 7.3 percent to $52.27 a barrel in September from the previous month.
On December 21, 2016, local news outlets reported that the Parliament had increased the contribution of oil revenues to the National Development Fund.
According to the parliamentary decision, crude oil, gas condensate, and net gas export revenues would make 30 percent of the fund during the first year of the 6th Development Plan, which started March 2017 and will go on five years.
For years 2 to 5 of the five-year plan, the petrodollar share will rise by a minimum of 2 percent each year, as the plan stated.
In the past three years, the government had allocated 20 percent of its oil revenues to the fund. The new parliamentary decision will nearly doubles the amount by the end of the five-year plan.
The National Development Fund’s reserves stood at $24.4 billion in 2011 and $35 billion in 2012.
Speaking of the expenditures made out of the development fund, Nobakht said since 2013, 300 trillion rials ($8.7 billion) has gone into developmental projects.
He noted that $11.6 billion out of the fund has been spent in five water management megaprojects since 2013.
