TEHRAN – Iran has transferred over 1.564 trillion rials (about $47.901 million) worth of shares of state-run companies to the private sector in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), the Tasnim News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The country has transferred 47.738 trillion rials (over $1.462 billion) worth of shares of state-run companies to the private sector in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20.

In May 2014, Iranian Privatization Organization Director Abdollah Pouri Hosseini said the country would privatize 186 state-run companies in Iranian calendar year 1393 (March 2014-March 2015). 

He said that the companies consist of 27 huge companies, 76 large companies, 31 medium companies, and 31 companies of other sizes.

To the surprise of outsiders, Iran over the past decade has been on a privatization bonanza; where the state once represented over 80% of GDP, it now represents less than 40% (excluding ownership of related organizations), according to the Press TV.
 
The government has envisioned a large privatization program in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of state-owned firms each year.
 
Under the present interpretation of the Article 44 of Iran's Constitution, hundreds of state-owned companies have been privatized.

MA/