Gov’t to End Subsides for Medicine Import

The government will put on end to paying subsidized foreign currency to import pharmaceuticals, the health minister said.
“Allocating subsidized currency creates the ground for rent-seeking and corruption and we are determined to end this by end of the fiscal year [March 2020]” Bahram Aynollahi said in a talk with IRIB news.
Over the past three years the former government allocated billions in subsidies for importing food and medicine selling the dollar for 42,000 rials. The rate was almost a seventh of its value in the open market. Fraud and misappropriation during the years were rampant as some big importers and vested interests took the cheap currency but their imports were close to zero.