Social Security retirees gathered in various cities in Iran to protest their living conditions.
Social Security retirees protested in various cities in Iran on Sunday, February 16, in protest of their living conditions, and are scheduled to hold a nationwide protest on February 19.
In a report on these protests, Tasnim News Agency highlighted the issue of the "government's debt of 340 trillion tomans to Social Security" and the organization's inability to increase pensioners' salaries, and Hassan Sadeghi, head of the "Union of Labor Veterans," told ILNA News Agency that "retirees will attend a large gathering of 10,000 people on February 19, at the invitation of the Union of Labor Veterans."
Reports published on social media also indicate that retirees protested the failure to achieve the goals of proportional pensions, announcing that the poverty line in Iran had reached "9 million tomans."
Article 96 of the Social Security Law states that pensions should increase in line with the cost of living, but the Social Security Organization says the government owes 340 trillion tomans to this institution and there are no financial resources to further increase pensioners' salaries.
Retirees are protesting that their salaries lag at least 50% behind the inflation rate.
The income of retirees with minimum wages and 30 years of service has reached 2.8 million Tomans, and those with average wages and 35 years of work experience have reached 7 million Tomans; but these figures are still far below the poverty line of 9 million Tomans in the country.
According to a June report by the Majlis Research Center, the country's per capita income has decreased by 34 percent from 2011 to 2019: "In fact, despite the increase in nominal household income, the purchasing power of each Iranian has decreased by about one-third compared to 2011."
The parliament's expert arm has predicted that if economic growth of 8% is achieved from 2020 onwards, it will take at least six years for the country to return to the per capita income level of 2011.
The government has also faced a budget deficit in recent years, and Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, head of Iran's Planning and Budget Organization, recently announced that 32 trillion tomans had been included in this year's budget to pay 3.6 million social security retirees, but due to "a legal problem," only 30 percent of this amount was paid.
He did not explain what this legal problem was and what would happen to the 340 trillion tomans the government owes this organization, but statistics from the country's treasury show that the government has faced a huge budget deficit for the second consecutive year.
However, Mr. Sadeghi says that at the rally on Bahman 19, we explicitly ask the parliamentarians to include the Social Security Organization's share in the 1400 budget of 90 trillion tomans.
He also said, "Today, parliamentarians are telling retirees that we will allocate 90 trillion tomans for the organization in the budget, but behind the scenes, they oppose it."
According to the International Monetary Fund's assessment, the average inflation rate in Iran over the past two years has been around 36 percent and will be above 30 percent this year and next.
Source: Radio Farda
