TEHRAN – Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi has announced the current Iranian calendar year’s (started on March 20) amended national budget bill to be implemented by the Planning and Budget Organization (PBO), IRNA reported.

President Raisi sent the approved amendments to PBO on Wednesday, according to Article 123 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Majlis (Iranian parliament) had approved the amended national budget bill for the current calendar year in mid-March.

The amended bill amounted to about 28.823 quadrillion rials (about $686.261 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials).

The proposed bill, first submitted to Majlis in early December 2020, was 24.357 quadrillion rials (about $579.928 billion), with a 20-percent rise from the current year’s approved budget.

The bill estimated the government’s budget at 9.298 quadrillion rials (about $221.38 billion), while the amended figure is 13.733 quadrillion rials (about $326.976 billion).

The parliament’s budget review committee had wrapped up its final session for reviewing the details of the national budget bill for the current year in early March.

According to Rahim Zare, the spokesman of the parliament’s budget committee, the bill then was submitted to the Guardian Council for final approval.

The parliament had rejected the general outlines of the budget bill in early February, urging the government to reform the bill and submit it to the parliament again; after making the necessary amendments, the government resubmitted the bill to the parliament, and Majlis approved the amendments of the national budget bill in mid-February.

After approving the general outlines, the budget review committee held several sessions for reviewing the details of the bill.

The first session of the budget review committee was held on February 20 in which the parliament determined the share of the National Development Fund (NDF) from the country’s oil and gas export revenues in the newly amended budget bill.

Majlis continued to review the details of the national budget bill for the year 1400, in an open session on February 28. This session was mainly focused on the expense aspects of the national budget bill.

EF/MA