TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) Davoud Manzour has said several articles are foreseen in the Seventh National Development Plan (2022-2026) for reforming the country’s budget bill in the coming years.

Speaking to the press after a Parliament committee meeting for reviewing the seventh NDP, Manzour said various issues have been discussed in this regard including the necessity of deciding on the completion or abandonment of the country’s semi-finished infrastructure projects to manage their budget, Mehr News Agency reported.

“Proposals were made to hand over semi-finished projects to non-governmental sectors in order to complete such projects or halt them; but considering that a final conclusion was not reached in this regard, it was decided to discuss the issue in a separate specialized committee meeting,” Manzour said.

There were also discussions about the policies related to bank facilities and creating commitments for the non-governmental sector under the budget law, he added.

The official further mentioned the discussions about oil incomes and how to direct such revenues to the production sector, saying: “One of the disagreements between the government and the parliament is how to make oil resources more productive. In other words, how to use the capacities of the private sector so that we can develop new oil fields or improve the existing fields.”

“Some of the suggestions we gave about the use of private sector capacity in the existing fields were approved in the meeting. Also, regarding the new fields, there were differences of opinion, and it was decided to re-submit a joint proposal to the respected specialized committee,” Manzour explained.

“In terms of how oil resources and revenues from oil sales should be considered in the budget bill, the government had a clear proposal that was decided to be discussed in a technical committee due to the issues that the representatives had with the proposal,” the PBO head added.

EF/MA