TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) said 430 trillion rials (about $10.2 billion) is going to be allocated for development projects in the next year’s budget plan, up 53 percent from the figure for the current year.

“We intend to invest as much as we can in development sector in the next [Iranian calendar] year (starts on March 19, 2020), so we have increased the budget for this sector by 53 percent to achieve significant growth,” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said on the sidelines of the 12th meeting of the budget headquarters on Monday.

Last week, Nobakht had announced that the government is going to allocate all revenues from oil sales to the development projects following structural reforms in the next Iranian calendar year’s budget bill.

According to the official, the revenues gained from elimination of hidden energy subsidies as well as increased tax incomes will replace oil revenues. 

“This does not mean a rise in tax income; but by setting new tax bases and eliminating unnecessary exemptions at a time of economic warfare, more tax revenues will be provided,” he explained.

Back in September, Nobakht had announced that the government was going to submit the budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year to the parliament on December 6 as scheduled.

According to the official, this year, PBO has decided to send the information about the state-owned companies’ budget to the Majlis (Iranian parliament) a month earlier so that the parliament would have enough time to review it.

The members of the budget preparation committee at PBO are seriously working on the bill and while the views may differ in some areas, the consensus among all members will be the base for the final decision making, Nobakht said.

EF/MA