The government has started examining the budget proposal for the next fiscal year (starting March 21, 2015), vice-president for planning and strategic supervision announced on Wednesday.
The discretionary draft budget submission to state organizations is carried out in accordance with Clause 48 of the budget law ratified in 2001. This part of law had been put off for 14 years.
"For the next budget, we will provide proposals based on the agencies' performance goals and strategies in line with the Fifth 5-Year Economic Development Plan," Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said.
The government could not include performance analyses for all the departments and agencies in next year's budget due to time limit, he added.
President Hassan Rouhani submitted his administration's first state budget last year. The bill, worth 7,930 trillion rials ($319 billion at the official exchange rate) included cuts in spending in an effort to repair state finances.
The parliament approved the budget bill in February, after what Rouhani called only "a few minor differences" between the legislature and the government.
Nobakht said the Rouhani administration will not follow the path of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who continually feuded with parliament over economic issues including the budget. Ahmadinejad's budget bills were passed with delays of several months during most of his 8 years in office.
Iran's budget announcements involve a string of revenue assumptions that are subject to sudden change, making it very difficult to make firm estimates for the government's budget deficit in the next fiscal year.
After receiving budget proposals from agencies and departments, the government will start drafting the budget bill before sending it to the parliament for approval.
