Gov’t Wants to Sell 2,500 Surplus Assets

EghtesadOnline: The Economy Ministry has prepared an inventory of 2,500 properties owned by different government organizations that have no legal constraints vis-à-vis divestments.

News ID: ۷۸۷۳۲۳

22 November 2021

The properties are estimated to be worth 170 trillion rials ($607 million), according to Fatemeh Dadgar, head of the ministry’s Department for Government Assets.

“These properties have been recognized as excess and are ready for sale, and have all the legal ownership documents,” she was quoted as saying by the Economy Ministry news agency, shada.ir.

Divestible assets can be sold either via public auction or at the Iran Mercantile Exchange.

In the 2021-2022 budget, the government expects to make 940 trillion rials ($3.3 billion) from selling stakes in listed companies plus unwanted real estate.

According to Dadgar, the government had plans to generate 397 trillion rials ($1.4b) by selling properties controlled by state and administrative bodies up until Sept.

A report released by the Supreme Audit Court -- the supervisory arm of the parliament -- shows that the government failed to realize divestment income projected for the first half of the present calendar year (March-Sept).

Of the 940 trillion rials projected income, the report said hardly 7.02 trillion rials ($25 million) was secured that too from divestments in previous years.

In a report last week the Majlis Research Center said the government at best can realize 30% of the projections.

Government efforts to sell surplus property worth 400 trillion rials failed last year as it was unable to divest estates more than 16 trillion rials. Failure is some cases was due to the administrative bodies’ refusal to sell while in others there simply were no buyers for the highly-priced estates and companies.

Income from divestitures is to be allocated in its entirety to the provincial administrative body that let go the property.

The budget law stipulates that earnings from divestment of government properties must be channeled to fund development projects. In recent years most of the costly projects are behind schedule largely due to funding constraints.

The properties on the government divestment list are said to be totally useless and not needed by the government bodies.