TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – During past six months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2003), Iran’s export of crude, oil products, and gas liquidities bring in some $12.3 billion, an informed official with the Iranian oil ministry announced here Monday.

The source said that according to the figures, released by the Iranian Central Bank, crude exports comprise $1.08 billion of the whole revenues, showing a 34.2 percent increase compared with the corresponding period last year.

Oil products and gas liquidities share some $1.4 billion of the total amount, half of which exchanged in return to the imported products. The country’s Treasury Office benefited $9.2 billion from the exports, the official stated. It shows that oil revenues have remarkably exceeded the amount forecast in the current year’s budget.

According to Article 60 of the Third Development Plan Law, at the end of each four-month period, crude oil revenues should be converted, and then deposited into the Treasury’s account. If the amount exceeds one third of the agreed number, the Treasury would obtain only one twelfth of the next income, and the remainder should be deposited into the “Government’s Exchange Reserve Fund”.

The official also added that, during the first half of the current Iranian year, the ratio between Iran’s crude oil revenues and its total oil incomes stood at 56.9 percent, showing one percent increase. ER/AF/IS END MNA