Iran: Ambiguity About Soaring Government Fuel Revenues

The Iranian Parliament’s research commission reports that in the past Iranian year, the Ahmadinejad administration has taken in revenue of 73.6 trillion toumans from the price of fuel after cutting government subsidies.

In a report published on the Khabar on line website, the amount is said to be 20 trillion toumans higher than had been predicted.

Despite the reported extra income, the administration has said it faces a cash shortage for paying out benefits to families and manufacturers, which is part of the subsidy restructuring.

The Ahmadinejad administration has been paying out cash benefits to households for close to two years to counter the effects of cutting government subsidies.

There have been continuous disputes over the implementation of the restructuring, and most recently the source of benefits paid out to families has come into question.

While the administration has not accounted for the 73.6 trillion toumans of income, which parliamentary reports say it has earned by restructuring subsidies, the Ahmadinejad government has yet to explain why it is running out of cash, even for the current level of benefits, and why it has also failed to deliver promised benefits to production units and factories.