EghtesadOnline: Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht believes it is possible to triple cash subsidies paid to the poor.

EghtesadOnline: Impoverished families in Iran will get a raise of up to 50% in monthly allowance, under a program which had been adopted for sometime but will go to force from Saturday night.

EghtesadOnline: The government’s monthly grant of cash subsidies to families and individuals with limited resources who receive aid from the State Welfare Organization and Imam Khomeini Relief Committee will rise in accordance with the budget law, a statement by the Organization of Targeted Subsidies reads.

EghtesadOnline: With an eye to the May 19 presidential election, Hamid-Reza Baqaie, a probable presidential candidate who happens to be one of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s close confidants, has promised to raise monthly cash subsidy payment to 2,500,000 rials ($65.7) if he is elected to the office.

EghtesadOnline: Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said on Saturday that 4,853,386 people have been removed from the list of cash subsidies recipients as of January 20.

EghtesadOnline: A paper recently authored by economists Roman J. Zytek and Mohammad Reza Farzin has reviewed the experience of Iran’s Targeted Subsidies Reform. The study addresses several criticisms of the key elements of the reform design, implementation record and broader economic and social impact, identifying and elaborating on the most critical design and implementation shortcomings.

EghtesadOnline: Governments must honor their contracts, even those made under previous administrations, says Iranian professor of economics at Virginia Tech, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani.

EghtesadOnline: Monthly payments of cash subsidies will remain in place during the next fiscal year (March 2018-19) until a formula is devised to remove high-income earners from the list of recipients, the government spokesman said.

EghtesadOnline: To raise cash subsidy payments to 2.5 million rials (about $66) per head, the prices of energy carriers need to rise sixfold.

EghtesadOnline: Lawmakers voted on Saturday for the government to earmark 375 trillion rials ($9.91 billion) for cash subsidies in the new Iranian year (to start March 21, 2017).

EghtesadOnline: Around 2,400 trillion rials ($60 billion at market exchange rate) have been paid as cash subsidies under the so-called "Subsidy Reform Plan" ever since the controversial scheme came into effect in 2010.