The Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi said improving financial transparency and accountability is a key priority of his ministry.
In a talk with state TV late on Sunday, Khandouzi said all state and government-controlled companies, including banks and insurance firms, should publish their financial statements to the public within a month.
“As minister, I am committed to make banks, state companies and insurance firms accountable for mismanagement.”
Obliging companies to regularly publish financial reports is one of the key tools for assessing the performance (or lack of it) of managers of state-run companies, he noted.
State companies are obliged to publish financial data online similar to Codal system, which is an information platform through which stock market companies publish financial data.
“In the same way that listed companies are required to publish financial data on a regular basis on Codal, state companies too must allow the public to access their financial performance,” the official noted.
Improving Pricing Mechanism
Regarding the stock market, the minister said changing pricing policies for products of listed companies will make investment in the bourse attractive for investors.
He favored listing key commodities at the Iran Mercantile Exchange and allowing market mechanism to determine prices. Khandouzi said selling cement in the stock market was a successful experience and other products can do likewise.
“This experience showed that prices can stabilize via IME mechanism in a short period. This is a fair and transparent mechanism that prevents rent-seeking”.
Earlier in the week, the Industries Ministry compelled cement factories across the country to sell their products only via the IME.
In the past most listed companies failed to make net profit due largely to obligations to sell at prices set by the government. Market observers say scrapping mandatory prices will have an immediate positive effect on the performance of such companies.
Khandouzi spoke about plans to ease the process of listing companies in the bourse, criticizing the slow process in the past five months.
Listing process has been slow in the current fiscal year compared to last year mainly due to the bearish trend in the share market, particularly in the first quarter of the year.
To encourage companies to offer shares to the public, the stock market regulator has strived to cut red tape and bureaucracy. In one recent measure to make listing easier, the Securities and Exchange Organization said the SEO will no longer be involved in the listing process and relegated the task to the Tehran Stock Exchange and the junior exchange Iran Fara Bourse.
