A Parliamentarian: Oil Ministry Owes Khuzestan 30 Trillion Tomans

A member of the presiding board of the Islamic Consultative Assembly has reported that the Oil Ministry owes Khuzestan 30 trillion tomans and stated that the Oil Ministry has not yet paid pollution fees to the municipalities and local councils of Khuzestan.

Mojtaba Yousefi stated on Sunday, November 9: According to the law, one percent of the production and sales of polluting units, titled as pollution fees, should have been paid to the municipalities and local councils of that region, but this law has not been implemented to date.

Beyond pollution fees, the government is also obligated to pay Khuzestan province’s “three percent share” of oil export revenues. The vast majority of Iran’s oil is produced in this province, but according to official statistics, the government paid approximately 40 percent of Khuzestan’s three percent share of oil revenues in 2018, twenty percent in 2019, and about 12 percent last year.

Khuzestan province is one of the most deprived provinces in the country and has been severely gripped by a water crisis this year.

The Oil Ministry’s substantial debts to Khuzestan province come at a time when the debts of the National Iranian Oil Company increased from 50 billion dollars in 2017 to 60 billion dollars by the end of 2019, and it was recently reported that this figure has now reached 70 billion dollars.

Currently, the highest unemployment rate in Hormozgan province has been recorded at 18.2 percent, and following that, Khuzestan province ranks second in the country with an unemployment rate of 14.3 percent.

Source: Radio Farda