Economy minister: Iran to reduce dependence on oil revenues

Economy and Financial Affairs Minister Ali Tayyebnia underlined the new government and his ministry’s steadfastness to resolve the existing economic problems and, meantime, decrease the country’s dependence on oil revenues. “The new government’s main orientation will be moving towards resolving the problems and decreasing the country’s dependence on oil revenues,” Tayyebnia said. The minister said that the government intends to present the Parliament an amendment to the subsidies law aimed at solving that problem. “We remain committed to pay the subsidies to the health and industrial sectors,” Tayyebnia added. Earlier this year, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that the government plans to reduce remarkably the share of oil revenues in running the country. Ahmadinejad said in April that the government has succeeded in reducing the share of oil revenues in the budget of current year and in this regard has taken other initiatives that will be announced in due time. Earlier in his televised interview Ahmadinejad told reporters that the new year's budget has been adjusted based on oil revenue's shortage and declining its share in meeting budget needs. Replying a question on making up for shortage of oil revenues, the president noted that the government planned to reduce current expenditures of the administration on the one hand and to raise the share of tax revenues on the other hand. On December 19, 2011, Iran began a long-awaited subsidy reforms plan after months of speculation regarding the timing or degree of the subsidy cuts. The plan included subsidy cuts on energy prices, including the heavily subsidized gasoline prices.