During an open session of Majlis (Iranian parliament) on Wednesday, the national budget bill for the next year was put to a vote and 154 MPs out of 222 MPs who were present voted in favor of it and the generalities of the bill were approved.

President Ebrahim Raisi submitted the national budget bill for the next Iranian year to the Majlis on December 5.

The proposed budget for the next year amounts to about 54.18 quadrillion rials (about $108.36 billion at the free market rate of 500,000 rials), with an 18 percent rise from the current year’s budget.

The bill has estimated the government’s budget at 24.29 quadrillion rials (about $48.58 billion).

Public resources are estimated at 14.95 quadrillion rials (about $29.9 billion).

The crude oil income is predicted to be 5.54 quadrillion rials (about $11.08 billion), and oil sales are estimated at 1.35 million barrels per day at an average price of €65.

Like the current year’s budget, the next year’s proposed budget requires the government to pay 40 percent of its oil, gas, and gas condensate revenues to the National Development Fund (NDF).

Tax revenues are predicted to be 11.22 quadrillion rials (about $22.44 billion) which is 49.8 percent more than the figure for the current year’s budget bill.

The data provided in next year’s budget bill indicate that the government is taking major steps to distance the economy from oil, as a big portion of the income is set to be gained from sources other than oil and gas.

Oil incomes in the next year’s budget bill are estimated to be 6.2 percent less than the ceiling allowed in the budget law, accounting for only 22.8 percent of the total incomes. On the other hand, the share of tax revenues is twice the revenues from oil and gas sales, which means changing the budget approach from oil revenues to sustainable revenues.

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The largest amount of the budget is related to watershed management and aquifer management with a budget of 13 trillion rials ($34 million), ISNA quoted Mostafa Jalili, an official with Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, as saying.

Important issues such as employment, production and people’s livelihood, water, agriculture and environment, watershed management, and aquifer management have been taken into consideration in the 1402 budget bill, he explained.

“Among other important issues that are specifically mentioned in the budget bill is the issue of drought. Considering the location of the country in the arid and semi-arid region and the impact of climatic conditions on the state of water resources, this vital element is very important,” he added.

In the current year, some 26 trillion rials ($65 million) has been allocated to protecting natural resources in the fields of watershed management and soil protection, protection and sustainable exploitation of forests and pastures, and desertification, he noted.

President Ebrahim Raisi submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1402, which starts on March 21, to the Majlis on Wednesday.

The proposed budget amounted to about 52.616 quadrillion rials (about $131 billion), with a 40 percent rise from the current year’s budget.

The president mentioned stable economic growth, people’s livelihood, observing justice, and efficiency of the government system as the main approaches of the budget bill and stated: “In this bill, the establishment of a progress and justice fund in all provinces is foreseen so that the development credits of the provinces are paid systematically.”

On January 8, Hossein Mir-Rajabi, an official with Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, said the Organization plans to benefit from the experiences of knowledge-based companies toward preserving natural resources.

Utilizing the capacity of knowledge-based companies in the field of making systems smart, stopping the unauthorized change of use in agricultural lands and natural resources, and implementing projects to revitalize pastures have been considered, he added.

Seven programs namely smart controlling and monitoring of natural resources, formulating and implementing the revitalization plan, enriching pastures, creating a comprehensive natural resource management system, launching a national dispatching center, manufacturing firefighting equipment domestically, developing the Internet of Things, and smart irrigating of plantations have been prepared in this regard.

The Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 311 billion rials (about $775,000) to the projects, the official added.

Meanwhile, a roadmap for environmental protection has been developed, Rouhollah Naqdipour, the secretary of the strategic council of the Department of Environment, has announced.

The document presents 13 national macro strategies and 46 cross-sectoral measures for five main environmental challenges, he said, IRNA reported.

The 7-chapter book also suggests reforms for systematic purposeful solutions and policies to solve environmental issues including the water crisis, he explained.

He listed the five major environmental challenges of the country as the imbalance between water resources and consumption leading to drought, soil erosion, waste and sand and dust storms, air pollution in metropolises, destruction of biodiversity and genetic resources, and imbalance between the environment and industrial and civil development.

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President Raisii, who attended the open session of the Majlis in order to present the budget bill, said, “In the fiscal year 1401, the government was able to achieve success with the cooperation of all the concerned and caring people and benefiting from their efforts, thoughts and efforts in the government, parliament and all departments that operate in the name of the holy system of the Islamic Republic.”

The President added, “The first part of the country’s 1402 budget bill, which is related to state-owned companies, was submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly one month earlier according to the law so that the parliament has more time to deal with the budget of this part.”

The President stated, “All our efforts were to ensure that the budget bill 1402 was fully in line with the policies announced by the Leader and the policies of the 7th Development Plan,” adding, “Of course, you are aware that the general policies of the 7th Development Plan reached us in mid-September, that is, in the middle of the drafting of the budget bill, but nevertheless, the 1402 budget was inspired by the policies announced by the Leader.”

“After the finalization of the budget bill, the government devoted its efforts to developing the 7th Development Plan so that this plan can be submitted to the parliament as soon as possible,” Raisi said.

The President stated that the government and the parliament will definitely take into consideration how far the past programs have been implemented and what were the reasons for the non-implementation of parts of these programs, and said, “Considering that the evaluations indicate that 30 to 35 per cent of the past programes have been implemented, our focus will be that the 7th Development Plan will be formulated in such a way that it will be fully implemented.”

Referring to the points considered by the Leader in the general policies of the 7th Development Plan, Ayatollah Raisi added, “One of these important points is to separate permanent orders from one-year orders so that businesses become more stable in the coming years and the parliament can review the budget bill easier”.

According to the reports, the government revenues through tax will increase by over 55$ next year comparing to this year’s budget.

Raisi considered the reform of the budget structure as one of the emphasis of the Supreme Leader and a serious necessity of the country and stated, “In the budget bill of 1402, the strengthening of production and employment has been given special attention and 540 trillion tomans for the purpose of investing state companies in the country’s economy and 327 trillion Tomans is also planned as the construction budget of the government”.

He further mentioned the 7% reduction in the tax on production units as well as the reduction in the customs tariff of livestock inputs and basic goods from 4% to 1% as tax incentives foreseen in the budget bill 1402 in order to support production and employment.

The President considered housing as an important concern of the people and their representatives in the Majlis and said, “The government will make the necessary forecasts in next year’s budget in order to provide financial resources to support the construction of housing, as well as provide the necessary credits from the transportation development fund”.

Raisi said, “We thank God that our wise nation disappointed the enemy according to our wise leader and this time, as in the past, the enemies of this nation were defeated in these conspiracies, and of course, our responsibility towards the good, pious, and sincere people who love the Revolution has doubled”.

On this basis, the President pointed out, “All the elements of the system must do their best to serve the people and take steps to solve the problems. We consider ourselves capable of solving problems and we deeply believe in the slogan of “we can” and move things forward with cooperation, empathy, coordination and convergence”.

At the end, Raisi expressed hope that next year’s budget will be the best budget compared to the previous budgets, and by announcing the imminent submission of the 7th Development Plan bill to the parliament, he thanked the people’s representatives, as well as the parliament’s presiding committee and the members of the specialized budget review commissions.

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According to Shahbaz Hassanpour, the committee will start assessing the details of the bill since the budget outlines are ratified.

On December 8, President Hassan Rouhani submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1399 to the Majlis.
The proposed budget amounted to about 1.988 quadrillion rials (about $473.5 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials), with a 14-percent rise from the current year’s approved budget.

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).

The main characteristic of the next year’s budget bill which makes it different from previous years’ budget bills, is the impact of the U.S. sanctions on the country’s economy and the consequent considerations which have been taken into account in preparing it.

The next year’s budget bill has been modified in terms of resources, expenditures, policies, and objectives, considering the resistance against the U.S. sanctions.
In resources, the government has tried to have the least dependence on oil resources in the history of the country’s economy.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the country’s next budget bill for the coming fiscal year has been designed to counter US sanctions and that it is not much reliant on oil revenues.

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“Given the difficult times of sanctions, we will be losing a considerable amount of budget resources; therefore, it is necessary to make sure that the reforms in the budget structure for the next year will be able to cut down  direct dependency on oil revenues to zero,” Nobakht said.

He went on to add that even under normal circumstances, the country still needed to reduce its dependency on oil revenues.

“For the first time, we have taken an important step toward reforming the country’s budget structure,” he stressed.

Following the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year, US President Donald Trump’s administration went ahead with re-imposing sanction on Iran, targeting the country’s energy and banking sectors, and stepping up efforts to drive Iran’s oil revenues to zero.

In April, the White House announced its decision not to renew waivers that allow eight countries, including China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey, to buy Iranian oil without facing US sanctions.

Meanwhile, Iran says with or without waivers, the country’s oil exports will not fall to zero under any circumstances. At the same time, the country is making efforts to reduce its reliance on oil revenues and instead turn its focus on non-oil production and exports.

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President Rouhani emphasized that the budget structure of the country needs to be reformed without having negative impacts on people’s everyday life.

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As reported, however, some 464,000 jobs were created in the previous Iranian calendar year.

From among major policies applied by the Rouhani administration preparing the annual budget bill has been controlling unemployment rate and preserving job creation.

To improve general livelihood of Iranians, spur job creation, support production, and reinforce budget discipline this year’s budget bill is aimed also at increasing the salaries of government’s employees and the retired besides continuing implementation of the planned programs to combat absolute poverty and improve healthcare.

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Meanwhile, the Guardian Council, which is a body empowered to vet legislation, has announced that it will provide its viewpoints on the budget bill’s flaws next week.

The overall budget ceiling in the 1398 budget bill totals 17.12 quadrillion Rials. Furthermore, the next year’s budget bill expects $ 54 for each barrel of crude oil exported to the global markets. Under the US sanctions, the government forecasts that Iran’s oil sales will be something between 1-1.5 million bpd next year, which indicates a sharp decline compared to this year’s 2.5 million bpd.

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Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati said on Mon. that removing four zeros off national currency ‘rial’ will take about two years.

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