The Iranian Privatization Organization (IPO) has offered new incentives to the private sector for purchasing government assets, IRNA reported on Friday.
For “genuine” private sector companies intending to buy state-owned companies’ shares, the installment payment period will be extended by 30 percent while the interest rates will also reduce by certain percentage as per the agreements, head of the IPO, Mirali Pourihosseini said on Friday.
The official reiterated that over the past 18 months (since the Rouhani administration came to office), the privatization process “has taken a new turn in favor of the genuine private sector,” with 90% of government asset transfers in this period having gone to genuine private sector companies.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR) has been among the government companies with the highest transfer of assets to the private sector, in line with implementation of Article 44 of the Constitution, according to head of IRIR’s Transit Committee, Mohammad Gharavi; IRNA reported. “IRIR has so far transferred 23,000 freight cars and some 2,000 passenger cars to the private sector firms. Another 700 locomotives are currently being offered to the private sector at highly subsidized rates,” said the official.
Despite the concerns voiced by critics that the transfer of state assets to the semi-governmental sector is a contradiction to Article 44 of the Constitution, the IPO is said to have concentrated its efforts on selling government assets to “real private sector companies.”
