RMTO’s Debts to Contractors Top $650m

As per the budget law for the current fiscal (March 2017-18), the government should provide Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, affiliated with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, with 8 trillion rials ($186.04 million) in Islamic treasury bills by the end of the year, a deputy minister of roads and urban development said. Davoud Keshavarzian added that up until now, RMTO has paid around 3 trillion rials ($69.76 million). Noting that currently the organization’s debts to contractors amount to 28 trillion rials ($651 million), the official said the organization has seen a nearly 20% decline in its budget in the current year compared to last year (March 2016-17) mainly due to capital expenditure budget cut and a rise in current budget, ILNA reported. Earlier, Keshavarzian said his organization will see its next year’s budget (March 2018-19) cut by 6.8% compared with the current fiscal (March 2017-18) to stand at 16.8 trillion rials ($390 million).