Energy Ministry owes 3,000 billion rials ($22 million) to contractors involved in renewable energy projects, the head of Iran Electricity Industry Syndicate said.
"As per last year's budget, the Energy Ministry was expected to invest $120 million in green energy, of which $50 million was spent on launching such ventures," Alireza Kolahi told IRIB on Friday.
That amount is not enough for fully settling the ministry's debt to private contractors who completed their projects long ago, he said.
This is while, according to Mohammad Sadeqzadeh, head of the Renewable Energy Organization of Iran (Satba), the company has repaid a large part of its debts and unpaid bills will be cleared before the current fiscal is out on March 20.
Sadeqzadeh put the blame of the pending bills on the Planning and Budget Organization.
"Electricity consumers have been levied $120 million since March through their bills to expand renewables, of which $50 million was given to Satba by the PBO, the main government body that drafts the national budget," he added.
Contracts on Hold
Kolahi says 300 electricity contracts signed between the Energy Ministry and private companies have been suspended due to the unprecedented rise in currency rates.
"Some 300 contracts worth 20,000 billion rials [$148 million] have been suspended due to high costs and a rising forex rates," he noted.
The government was supposed to allocate more foreign currency for energy projects, he said, “but has so far failed to do so.”
Rial, the national currency has lost about two-thirds of its value since last summer hitting a record low earlier this week of 135,000 rials to the US dollar.
The economy has been hit by the new US sanctions announced last year after President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal signed with six world powers.
