TEHRAN - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is going to submit the bill of the budget for the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 20, 2020) to Majlis (Iranian parliament) on Sunday, Mehr news agency reported, quoting the head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization.

Speaking on the sidelines of a budget planning meeting on Saturday, Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said the most important policy envisaged in planning the next year’s budget has been to increase the people’s purchasing power.

“Tomorrow, the president will submit the 4.8-quadrillion-rial (about $114.28 billion) budget bill with 19 annexes to the parliament,” Nobakht said.

The next year’s budget bill is prepared based on the structural reform program which has been provided by the Planning and Budget Organization in four major axes and nine program and project packages, he added.

According to the official, the main characteristic of the next year's budget bill which makes it different from previous years' budget bills, is the impact of the U.S. sanctions on the country's economy and the consequent considerations which PBO had to take into account in preparing the bill.

“The next year’s budget bill has been modified in terms of resources, expenditures, policies, and objectives, considering the resistance against the U.S. sanctions,” he said.

“In resources, we have tried to have the least dependence on oil resources in the history of the country’s economy,” he added.

Nobakht had earlier announced that the government will submit the budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year to the parliament on December 6 as it is scheduled.
Iran is going to allocate all revenues from oil sales to the development projects following structural reforms in its next budget bill.

EF/MA