Iran discloses budget bill for next year
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
The Iranian Parliament’s Ad hoc Budget Review Committee on December 24 approved the 1.988 quadrillion rials (about $473.5 billion) national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year, starting March 20.
Thus, 2020 budget is 14 percent higher than current year’s approved budget.
Mohammad Khodabakhshi said the committee held two meetings to investigate the budget bill, in which Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Budget and Planning Organization (PBO) Head Mohammad Baqer Nobakht together with a number of other officials including the acting chairman of Majlis Research Center debated over different parts of the bill.
The bill was approved by Parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee on December 16.
President Hassan Rouhani submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1399 to the Parliament on December 8.
The bill has estimated the government’s budget at 5.63 quadrillion rials (about $134.04 billion), 8.2 percent higher than the figure in the present year’s budget.
A 15-percent rise has been envisaged in the salary of the governmental employees.
The submitted bill has envisaged 2.61 quadrillion rials (about $62.14 billion) of incomes, while 3.67 quadrillion rials (about $87.38 billion) of expenses.
Revenues from exporting oil, gas, and gas condensate are estimated at 454.9 trillion rials (about $10.83 billion), down 66 percent from 1.37 quadrillion rials (about $32.61 billion) approved in the current year’s budget.
Tax incomes are predicted to be 1.95 quadrillion rials (about $46.42 billion), rising 27 percent from 1.72 quadrillion rials (about $40.95 billion) envisaged in the present year’s budget.
Like the current year’s budget, the next year’s proposed budget requires the government to pay 20 percent of its oil revenues to the National Development Fund (NDF).
In resources, the government has tried to have the least dependence on oil resources in the history of Iran’s economy.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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