TEHRAN -- President Mahmud Ahmadinejad presented the $292 national billion budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (begins March 20), to the Majlis on Monday.

“We have made the budget plan transparent and without any complexities,” Ahmadinejad stated in his speech to the parliament.
The national budget is the most important and most comprehensive document that is carefully studied and implemented in the country, he said.
Drafting this document, which determines the relations, priorities, and various orientations in the country’s activities for one year, is one of the most important tasks of the administration and the Majlis, he added.
The country’s budgeting system has always been seriously criticized for 40 years or more, Ahmadinejad stated.
Next year’s national budget plan has fundamental differences with this year’s, he noted, adding that it no longer has special provisions.
The national budget for the year 1387 is 274.5 trillion rials (about $292 billion), the president said.
73.5 trillion rials is allocated to the administration’s general budget, and 203 trillion rials is allocated to state-run companies, banks, and institutions, he added.
The main reason for the 17 percent growth in the budget is that the funding for infrastructure projects has been increased by 30 percent, he explained.
The cabinet reached a good consensus with the Majlis on drafting the national budget plan and resolved its problems, he stated.
Now, next year’s national budget bill is clear, transparent, and ready to be implemented, he added