Tehran Municipality Deprived of Gov’t’s Special Support
IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK
TEHRAN – Tehran Mayor says one of the measures that the governments have taken in the urban management during the outbreak of the Coronavirus has been special support of mayors but in Iran, municipalities have been deprived of such supports.
Speaking at an online presser on the occasion of Journalists’ Day, Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi felicitated the day to journalists in the country and immediately responded to a question regarding the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on municipalities’ financial resources. He said the Coronavirus issue for Tehran municipality has two meanings: first the rise in the costs and secondly the decline in the revenues. He added that of course this problem is not only confined to the Tehran municipality and all municipalities in Iran and the world are struggling with it.
He admitted some part of municipality’s revenues has been fully cut and currently metro and public bus transportation are working with 50 percent of their capacities and with the current rupture in the traffic scheme, the municipality’s revenues have fallen sharply in this sector.
Hanachi went on to say that one of the measures taken by governments in urban management regarding the Coronavirus has been special support of their municipalities but unfortunately in Iran, municipalities have been deprived of it.
On resolving the problem, he said the municipality is drawing up a double-impact bill to submit it to the city council. He noted that the municipality has a new auditing on the agenda because upgrading the auditing system is very important.
Hanachi noted that the municipality has tried to reduce its current expenditures, adding that with submitting the bill, the municipality does its best to reduce expenditures.
On his absence in the government’s cabinet meeting, he said according to the law, Tehran Mayor is not a cabinet member and in the past, his presence in the cabinet has been traditional and as a guest, and this tradition had started since the late Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s government.
He said the government’s condition is unusual and critical and one cannot expect too much of it, adding that when the government borrows money from the National Development Fund to tackle with the pandemic, it means one cannot expect too much.
He noted that the government has promised to help the municipality for renovating metro and public bus transportation, reiterating that he will not accept any demanding rhetoric and offensive literature and through talks and constant pursuits, one can get result.
Hanachi said that some credit has been earmarked for renovating the public bus transportation navigation, adding that the credit for renovating 500 busses has been earmarked and it will be soon signed and currently renovation of 500 more busses is in the works.
