Iranian MP Criticizes Government For Not Releasing Allocated Budget

An Iranian lawmaker says the administration has not yet paid a single rial of the development and infrastructure budget for the current Iranian year, started on March 21. 

Kamal Hosseinpour, the representative of Sardasht in the West Azarbaijan province in the parliament, said on Friday that over four months have passed since the beginning of the year but the government has not provided the allocated budget for the construction projects of the province.

Criticizing the mismanagement of the budget allocations, he said, “The Plan and Budget Organization of the country tells us that we don't have money and it's like they don't have any plan for their work, they don't even provide technical details.” 

He added that in many parts of the country only one to two months are left of the construction season due to the cold season approaching but no money has been released yet. 

They do not complete important projects such as the sewage treatment plant in the city of Rabat near Sardasht, where the sewage water of 20,000 people enters the dam that supplies the city’s drinking water, the lawmaker complained.

Earlier in the month, the Supreme Accounting Office released a report covering the period March 21- May 20 that shows government facing a serious problem in collecting revenues. Except tax revenues, all other major sources of income, including oil exports, grossly underperformed, which local media said was a serious warning for the government and the economy.