The ministry of economic affairs and finance is forming a special committee to facilitate the process of making Justice Shares tradable in the stock exchange.
The shares, whose transactions had been announced illegal by the officials, were first introduced by the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he sped up privatization based on Article 44 of the Constitution. The then president decided to offer shares to low-income families, starting with the poorest. Under the Justice Shares plan, millions of Iranian families received shares in state-owned firms, the value of which was supposed to be reimbursed 20 years after the dividends were generated by those shares. But due to mismanagement of the previous government, those who received them could never benefit from the advantages of the shares. A lawmaker has also criticized the way in which the shares were distributed.
"Since no specific body is in charge of the Justice Shares, no one can be held responsible for the chaos and widespread corruption could occur regarding these shares", said Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi.
He described the Justice Shares – with a total value of 96,000 billion rials (more than $36 billion) – as one of the challenges in the country's economy. He expressed hope that the shares would become tradable after the ratification of the bill prepared by the government.
