Iran Gov’t Says 40m Eligible for Cash Subsidy

Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Ali Rabiei says nearly 40 million people have been identified as eligible for the government’s Cash Subsidy Program.  Assuring the public that no one will be removed from the list of monthly cash recipients, he said:  “Monthly minimum wage of about 9 million rials ($214) will be the criterion in assisting those in  need,” IRIB news portal reported.  “There are close to 4.7 million Iranians supported by the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, 3.6 million by the State Welfare Organization, and three million female householders. In addition to these, close to 8 million people in rural areas are grappling with economic challenges. These are only a part of the population who need to be supported financially,” he added.  The government is planning to save 88 trillion rials ($4.47 billion) in the upcoming fiscal (starts in March 2018) by removing 34 million people from the cash subsidy list. “The government does not intend to channel a rial from these resources (money saved from the shorter cash subsidy list) to the treasury,” government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said last week, stressing that all the freed-up money will be spent on improving the lives of the destitute.