MPs Ratify Budget Financial Measures

EghtesadOnline: Members of Iran’s Parliament ratified a number of financial measures relating to bonds, finance and loans among other things during their latest open session on Tuesday to discuss the fiscal 2018-19 budget. Some of the measures were tweaked to comply with Islamic and constitutional precepts vetted by the Guardians Council.

News ID: ۷۸۲۰۱۵

13 March 2018

Lawmakers had previously approved that the National Development Fund of Iran should get 32% of all revenues earned from the exports of crude oil, petroleum products, gas condensates and gas. On Tuesday, however, they eliminated petroleum products from the list, IRNA reported.

The lawmakers allowed the sovereign wealth fund to provide a 15% share for railroad projects that tap into foreign finance deals that have been clinched with a host of other nations.

What’s more, the Guardians Council wanted the administration to employ NDFI potentials to provide resources for a number of initiatives, according to Financial Tribune.

The first was the government’s major initiative to renovate distressed areas and the administration was further allowed to draw 143.75 trillion rials ($3.21 billion) from NDFI next year to “strengthen defensive power, assist with the renovation of quake- and flood-stricken areas, produce vaccines for preventing pneumonia and infections in children, and implement the plan to combat haze”.

To gain the council’s green light, parliamentarians set the ceiling for releasing participatory bonds at 380.5 trillion rials ($8.5 billion) while the government is barred from tapping into the resources of bonds related to companies and municipalities in the annual budget.

Another measure approved by MPs dictates that with the guarantee of the Ministry of Oil, banks are allowed to dole out loans up to a ceiling of 50 trillion rials ($1.12 billion) to “state-owned companies affiliated with the ministry and its provincial companies” for supplying gas to villages and cities. The maturity period of the loans will be 50 years.