The parliament’s research center has released a report criticizing next year’s budget bill for allocating what it calls “unrealistic” budget for capital projects. The budget bill proposed to the parliament on Dec. 7 has allocated 480 trillion rials ($17.7 billion at official exchange rate) to national and provincial capital projects, which registers 16 percent growth compared to the current budget. However, in practice, the budget spent on capital projects across the country in the current fiscal year (ending March 20, 2015) is predicted to reach 300 trillion rials ($ 11.1 billion). The research center recommended that the administration should not define any new capital project. Instead, the center suggested, the government should give priority to the present projects which are nearly completed. The report also claimed that the deficit predicted for the next budget bill is not realistic either. The government has predicted it will face no deficit next year.
