The government has decided to continue the previous administration’s cash subsidy scheme for the next year, starting March 2015, said Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the vice president for strategic planning and supervision on Monday. Under the scheme, every Iranian citizen is paid a monthly sum of 455,000 rials ($17 at official exchange rate). Through implementation of the so-called Subsidy Reform Plan, the government is planning to save 480 trillion rials in the next fiscal year, of which 420 trillion will go to the cash handout and food assistance schemes, and the rest to the manufacturing sector, Nobakht told reporters.
