Tehran Municipality to Unveil Budget on Jan. 20

Tehran Municipality’s budget bill for the next fiscal (March 2018-19) will be submitted to the Tehran City Council on January 20, the deputy mayor for planning and urban development said.

Noting that the budget ceiling will “probably” be set at 175 trillion rials ($4.06 billion), Hojjatollah Mirzaie added that the figure has yet to be finalized in the Municipal Deputies Council, Mehr News Agency reported.

TM’s budget for the current year (March 2017-18) stood at 184.89 trillion rials ($4.29 billion).

In December, Mirzaie said the city seeks to diversify its revenue sources.

Under the new municipal management that took office in August, the official added that TM’s budget management will not surrender to “financial slackness” next year by relying on unsustainable revenues, such as construction taxes and duties—the simplest way to raise money, but will rely on five new financial resources.

“These new resources include taxes on municipal services and facilities, state funding, foreign investment and finance deals, value added tax and private sector investment in economically feasible projects,” he said.

Referring to the consequences of overreliance on construction revenues, Mirzaie said Tehran’s current fiscal budget took a body blow with the financial meltdown in the housing sector.  

“Such revenues accounted for as much as 80% of the budget. In fact, the biggest share of the city’s budget was procured from taxes and duties paid by 200,000 people active in the construction sector,” he said.