A member of the Construction Commission of Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Alireza Khosravi told that next year's budget plan envisages 480 trillion rials (some $16.48 billion based on the official exchange rate of US dollar-Each USD at 28,5000 rials) for construction projects.
"In the current year, we had 3,000 incomplete projects, but we managed to allocate budget to only 300 of them," he said. "The trend will continue in the next year, and we will not be able to fund all the incomplete projects."
"We should prioritize the projects of small towns and villages. Also we should focus on the projects which can be completed in the next seven months (before the deadline of the nuclear talks between Tehran and the P5+1)," the MP noted.
According to Khosravi, the government, Majlis, and Judiciary can cut their current expenses to increase the country's construction budget.
"There are lots of incomplete projects, and current delays will only result in higher expenses," he said.
Iranian government submitted the $293-billion budget bill to Parliament on Dec.7. The budget of funding for running the government is $93.7 billion. The proposed national budget is 4 percent more than current year. Next year's national budget bill is based on an oil price of $72 per barrel and a projected average exchange rate of 28,500 rials to the U.S. dollar for the fiscal year.
According to President Hassan Rouhani, the administration has taken the necessary steps to reduce negative effects of the oil price downturn.
The government expects to export 1.3 mbpd of crude oil and condensate at $72/barrel during next fiscal year, unchanged in volume, but decreased by 28 percent in value compared to the current budget law.
Iran said that about $24 billion of oil revenues is forecasted for next fiscal year, adding share of oil revenues in next year's budget bill has decreased to 31.5 percent compared to 45 percent of oil revenues in current year's budget.
Trend News Agency
17 December
