Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday praised the work of nurses across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday praised the work of nurses across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the early onset of winter and increase in home gas consumption, gas supply to power plants has been disrupted as priority shifts to households forcing power plants to use liquid fuel, managing director of Iran's Thermal Power Plants Holding Company said.
“Gas supply to power plants was cut last week and more liquid fuel is being used,” Mohsen Tarztalab was quoted as saying by ISNA.
The main reason is higher demand from households and industries, and if they reduce consumption there will be no need for power stations to use liquid fuel, Tarztalab said.
In the third month of the fall in the Persian calendar (Nov 21-Dec 20), on average 93 million cubic meters of gas, 80 mcm of diesel and 20 mcm of mazut was delivered to power plants every day. However, this volume was cut in the last week of the month to 60 mcm. The outcome was that liquid fuel supply to power stations shot up.
There is a conspicuous absence of an effective strategy on cross-border resources and that is why Iran’s share of transboundary water has reduced substantially, the deputy head of Water and Wastewater Planning Office at the Energy Ministry said.
“Iran's annual water share from cross-border rivers in the north, west and east should be around 13 billion cubic meters. It is less than 9 bcm,” Hedayat Fahmi was quoted as saying by ILNA.
Of the total 9 bcm inflow, close to 6 mcm flows out of Iran and pours into the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman per year, he noted.
Water policies of regional countries namely Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan have compounded Iran’s water crisis, he said, and added that because of Iran’s ineffective water diplomacy in the past the three neighbors are not abiding by the treaties and memoranda of understanding they signed with Iran.
The National Iranian Copper Industries Company and its subsidiaries, namely Sungun Complex, Miduk Complex and Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, produced a total of 804,480 tons of copper concentrate during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 20-Nov. 20) to register a 1% growth compared with last year’s similar period.
The data were released in Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization’s latest report.
Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex produced the largest share of the total output, with 477,718 tons, up 1% year-on-year.
Copper concentrate collective output during the month to Nov. 20 stood at 97,665 tons, marking a 3% fall compared with the same period of last year.
Iran’s exports to Latin American states grew 56% during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (started March 20), even though imports fell by 45%.
As per the latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, $169 million worth of non-oil goods were shipped from Iran to the 20 Latin American states.
Venezuela was the main destination for Iranian non-oil products during the period under review. The country imported $111.9 million worth of goods from Iran to register a considerable growth compared with the previous year’s $10 million.
Brazil was the second largest destination for Iranian goods. Iran’s exports to Brazil amounted to $55 million during the eight-month period, posting a 47% decline compared with the same period of last year.
Mexico and Argentina came next, importing $883,400 and $550,600 worth of non-oil Iranian products.
Medical schools will employ 53,000 healthcare professionals (besides faculty members) in the next Iranian year (starting March 21, 2021), says the Plan and Budget Organization.
A total of $334 million worth of agricultural products were exported to Eurasian Economic Union member states, during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 20-Nov. 20), registering a 53% rise compared with the similar period of last year, according to the director general of European and American Commercial Affairs Department with the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran.
“Our main export products to EEU’s five member countries over the period were pistachio, peach, apple, grapes, sour cherries, kiwi, pepper, dates and raisin,” Behrouz Hassan Olfat was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The official noted that exports to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia saw the highest increase in value in a descending order.
A total of 5.45 million tons of agricultural products worth $3.84 billion were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian year, showing a 27% and 13% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the similar period of last year, according to the technical affairs deputy with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
The population of the capital city Tehran has increased by 6.6% over five years from the fiscal year ending March 2013 to the year ending March 2017.
The Statistical Center of Iran estimated that 8,693,706 people and 2,903,435 households lived in Tehran in the year ending March 2017.
District Four was the most populous with 919,001 people (accounting for 10.6% of the city’s total population) and District Nine was the least populous with 174,239 people (2%).
Of the 8,693,706 people living in Tehran, 17.4% were between 0 and 14 years old, 74.1% were between 15 and 64 years old, and 8.4% were 65 years or older.
The government says its expenditure on development projects has increased, despite a decline in revenues.
Capital expenditures exceeded 520 trillion rials ($2 billion) in the eight months to Nov. 20, indicating a 31% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year.
According to a report by IRNA, citing the Plan and Budget Organization of Iran, unlike previous years, 30% of the capex payments this year were in cash rather than Islamic treasury bonds.
The report adds that as per the budget bill of the next fiscal year (March 2021-22), expenditures projected for development projects have increased by 18% to reach 1,040 trillion rials ($4 billion).
Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Hossein Ali Amiri submitted the budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year (March 2021-22) to the parliament on December 2. Unlike previous years, President Hassan Rouhani did not show up at the parliament for the budget day upon the advice of the National Headquarters to Flight Coronavirus.
The final phase of a bank megamerger involving five military banks and state-owned Bank Sepah was completed on Sunday, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran said.
Ansar Bank, last of the five, held its general assembly on Sunday wrapping up a complicated and arduous project that lasted 30 months, Abdolnasser Hemmati said in his social media account.
The merger involves Bank Sepah, the oldest bank in Iran and one of the three still owned by the government, four banks and one credit institution owned by the Iranian armed forces.
Tehran stocks pared some gains made on Sunday as sell-side pressure mounted on large cap shares, pulling down the benchmark of Tehran Stock Exchange into the red.
TEDPIX, the main gauge of the TSE, retreated from about 8,000 points rise in the early hours of session and went into negative zone.
The benchmark, which is highly sensitive to performance of large caps, closed session 5,870 points, or 0.41%, lower to finish trade at 1, 439,054 points.
The judiciary in Tehran has reported a jump in court cases related to illegal cryptomining calling for new measures to further restrict subsidized electricity for mining cryptocurrencies.
“Utilities and the Ministry of Industries need to work closer with the judiciary to help curb illegal cryptomining and cryptomining-related offences,” IRNA quoted Ali Tazreji, a judicial official as saying.
The Energy Ministry's concerns over possible power outages in summer and indirect subsidies pumped into crypto mining, prompted the government to increase electricity rates for cryptocurrency mining to 7 cents/one kilowatt-hour.
Iran Fara Bourse, the junior equity market, is studying 15 requests from venture capital funds (VC), eight of which are in the final stage, the IFB chief said.
Amir Hamouni said so far 10 VCs are listed on the IFB, the Securities and Exchange News Agency (SENA) reported.
VC is a form of private equity and a financing instrument that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential, or to companies that have grown quickly and appear poised to continue to expand.
The Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology has extended 18 trillion rials ($70.3 million) in cheap loans to 166 knowledge-based companies by using the resources of the National Development Fund of Iran.
Based on an edict of the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the office has been authorized to tap into the sovereign wealth fund’s resources for supporting knowledge-based companies.
In a letter to the Leader, Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari has detailed how the office used the money.
According to Sattari, the loans have been paid to 166 knowledge-based companies active in agriculture, industrial and mining sectors based in rural areas, ISNA reported.
“Thanks to the financial aid, the borrowers have made noteworthy progress and grown into large enterprises,” he wrote.
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