This week again the main topics were about the budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year. So far, the Iranian Parliament Committee for planning, budget and calculations has rejected the proposal of the Government to increase the fuel prices for the next year by 50%. Currently the price of petrol is 10,000 IRR ($0.27 at official exchange rate). The Government had calculated to have an additional 180 thousand billion IRR ($4.9billion) of income through this increase which would be spent on creating new jobs. However, the Parliament believes that since the State is the greatest consumer of fuel, the increase in prices cannot really lead to more income.
According to some Parliament members, there are 71000 civil projects left unfinished which would require nearly 137 billion USD. However, the Government spending leaves only 16.5 billion USD annually for them.
In a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Finance, President Hassan Rouhani recently and again insisted in the execution of tax payments without any exception. Admitting that although social media might bring risks, but blocking them would not solve any problem. “Everything can have good sides as well as bad sides”, said Mr Rouhani, “Driving a car might be dangerous, but we cannot shut car manufacturers because some people die in accidents”.
