A Member of Parliament: Some Agencies Have Permission from the Leader to Receive Bank Interest

A member of the Parliament's Program and Budget Commission emphasized that several agencies have "permission" from the Leader of the Islamic Republic to deposit their funds in banks and receive interest on these deposits. Izatollah Yusefian-Malla stated in an interview with ILNA news agency on Tuesday, January 22, that the bill prohibiting the receipt of interest from short-term and long-term deposits for the three branches of government and certain institutions was approved last year in the budget integration commission but did not receive a vote in the Parliament. Ali Asghar Youssefnejad, the spokesman for the budget integration commission for 2018, reported that according to this commission's resolution, all agencies receiving budgets from the government, including the three branches of government, universities, state insurance companies, non-governmental public institutions, foundations, and institutions under the supervision of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, are not allowed to receive interest from their short-term and long-term deposits in banks. This resolution must also be approved in the open session of the Parliament. However, Mr. Yusefian-Malla predicted that this resolution would not be approved in the open session of the Parliament. This member of the Program and Budget Commission announced that some agencies have "permission" from the Leader of the Islamic Republic regarding this matter. Previously, some officials from the Islamic Republic institutions, including officials from the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, had announced that they have "permission" from the Leader of the Islamic Republic to receive interest from the funds of pilgrimage deposits. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, also stated last year after the controversy over his "personal" accounts that these accounts were opened in 1995 with the "permission" of the Leader of the Islamic Republic. In December of last year, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the Parliament, requested the head of the judiciary to respond to reports published about this, which led to attempts by agents to arrest Mr. Sadeghi and subsequently charge him. According to reports published on websites, there are "63 personal accounts" in the name of the head of the judiciary, with an "annual profit of 250 billion tomans." Ali Tayebnia, the Minister of Economy in Hassan Rouhani's first government, stated that the money in these accounts and its profit are spent under the supervision of the first deputy and the administrative-financial deputy of the judiciary, and "reports on it have been sent to some responsible institutions. However, as the treasury, we are not aware of it because a special permission was obtained and it was exempted from the treasury process.