Iran Gov’t to Submit Budget Bill on Dec. 5

The government will submit the budget bill of the next fiscal year (starting March 21, 2018) to the parliament on December 5, the government spokesman and president of Planning and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, said on Tuesday.

“One of the features of next year’s budget is the performance-based allocation of budget to each governmental body and not the traditional method of distributing the money according to the treasury inflows,” IRNA quoted the official as saying.  

The current fiscal year’s budget stood at 11.5 quadrillion rials ($305 billion) as per the law approved by the parliament back in March just before the beginning of the year. It includes 3.98 quadrillion rials ($90.5 billion) earmarked as “general revenues”, in addition to a whopping 8 quadrillion rials ($211 billion) to fund state companies, institutions and banks.

The parliament-approved budget needs the final endorsement of the Guardians Council—the body in charge of ascertaining the constitutional and Islamic nature of all laws.