State and government owned companies produce losses estimated at 710 trillion rials ($2.4 billion) a year, chief of Auditing Organization of Iran said.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mousa Bozrog-Asl, reviewed the performance of the companies in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
He singled out ten loss-making companies that account for nearly 90% of the total loss shown by state and government enterprises, the Economy Ministry website, Shada.ir reported.
Topping the list was the Government Trading Corporation of Iran (GTC) affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, which piled up losses to the tune of 210 trillion rials ($724 million) last year. Bozrog-Asl said the company sunk into red largely because of subsidies the government gives on bread.
GTC is a government-owned company dealing in the purchase, import and distribution of essential foods. It is also responsible for securing the supply of wheat, rice, cooking oil and meat.
Second was the Thermal Power Plants Holding Company with annual losses around 210 trillion rials attributed to the difference in the final cost of generating electricity and mandatory prices imposed by the government.
Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) was another major loss maker. The top utility reported loss around 90 trillion rials.
The main government-owned Bank Melli Iran lost 60 trillion rials, National Iranian Gas Company 58 trillion rials, Iran Air (National Airline of Iran) 35 trillion rials, Iran Water Resources Management Company 29 trillion rials, Bank Maskan 8 trillion rials, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran 7 trillion rials and Agriculture Insurance Fund 2 trillion rials.
As for the profitable state-run companies, the audit authority named Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation (IMIDRO) with annual profit in the region of 300 trillion rials ($1 billion) last year.
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company was the second top gainer with a profit of 220 trillion rials last year.
The National Petrochemical Company, Port and Maritime Organization of Iran, National Iranian Oil Company, Agriculture Bank, Export Development Bank of Iran and Bank of Industry and Mine were among the other government institutions that showed profit.
On why state companies are losing so much money, the Supreme Audit Court (SAC), the supervisory arm of the parliament, earlier pointed to the orders to sell goods based on mandatory pricing by the government, high costs, old and ageing machinery and equipment, failure to realize projected income, international economic sanctions and forcing banks to give big loans that eventually turned out to be bad debts.
