Severe Budget Deficit in Iran; Supreme Leader’s Representatives in Universities Received Twice the Budgeted Amount
While Iran’s Treasury General Report indicates the government faces a severe budget deficit and revenue shortage, the “Iran Open Data” foundation reported in an investigative report that the institution representing Ayatollah Khamenei in universities received approximately twice the budgeted allocation for the fiscal year 1400.
According to the government’s budget proposal for fiscal year 1400, approximately 211 billion tomans was allocated for the Supreme Leader’s representative institution, but this figure was increased to over 413 billion tomans in the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Research by the “Iran Open Data” foundation shows that the Supreme Leader’s representative institution in universities also received a 50 billion toman share from subsidy allocations.
Likewise, based on official statistics, despite the 20-month closure of Friday prayers due to coronavirus-related restrictions, the budget of the Supreme Leader’s Council for the Policy-Making of Friday Prayer Leaders also doubled in that single year.
The Friday Prayer Policy-Making Council is just one of the propaganda organizations under the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic that receives funding from the country’s public budget, but no detailed report of its financial performance is published.
Another costly project under Ayatollah Khamenei’s supervision involves projects executed in Shiite religious cities in Iraq, which according to reports include “at least 68 projects” under implementation.
In November 2013, Reuters reported in an article titled “Ayatollah Khamenei Controls a $95 Billion Empire” that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic controls a financial emperor, or more simply, a mega-corporation called the “Headquarters for the Execution of the Imam’s Order,” valued at approximately $95 billion—more than the current annual revenue from oil exports of oil-rich Iran.
The doubling of budget allocations for certain institutions under Ayatollah Khamenei’s control comes as the spokesman for the Parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission announced on October 5 that the resources of fiscal year 1400’s budget have been exhausted and the government must submit a supplementary budget bill to Parliament.
According to the Tasnim News Agency, Mohammad Mehdi Moftah stated that “the revenues and expenditures of fiscal year 1400’s budget are not balanced” and the balance “on paper came with a series of assumptions,” but now that half the year has passed, it has become clear that the “expected prospects” for securing revenue “have not materialized and the government faces numerous problems.”
Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council of the Islamic Republic, reported this summer of “a budget deficit of 400 thousand billion tomans.”
Earlier, the chairman of the Parliament’s Economic Commission had also stated that the fiscal year 1401 budget proposal would be submitted to Parliament by the government following the structural reforms desired by Ayatollah Khamenei.
This proposal will be submitted to Parliament by December 6.
Source: Voice of America
