President Hassan Rouhani issued a circular to the heads of executive departments and agencies, highlighting the priorities and main policies to be followed by them while drafting their budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on March 20, 2016.
According to the circular, the budgetary directives revolve around three central themes of “Resistance Economy”, “advancement in the field of science and technology”, and “cultural reinforcement and uplift”, IRNA reported.
Resistance Economy refers to a set of guidelines by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to reduce reliance on oil revenues and boost domestic production.
In this context, the key policies of next year's budget have been outlined as: rapid and sustainable economic growth to generate employment, continuous improvement of the business environment and strengthening of the competitive structure, development of commercial and economic ties, broadening the comprehensive system of financing, changing the stance towards oil and gas resources, improvement of Subsidy Reform Plan, promotion of knowledge-based economy, improvement in economic and administrative health and combating corruption, establishment of a comprehensive social security system, implementation of the general health policies, sustainable development of tourism industry, increasing defense capabilities, giving priority to economic diplomacy and reinforcing the relationship between education and employment.
The government's key approach for the next Iranian year has been described as "extending comprehensive government support to boost economic growth parallel with reducing inflation through indigenized production and outward-looking policies."
The executive bodies have been mandated to submit their annual budget requests to the Management and Planning Organization before mid-October. The president is scheduled to submit the budget bill to the parliament on December 6.
