Ahmadinejad's Government Left '100 Billion Tomans' Commitment for the Presidency

Following what some groups have described as an increase in the budget of the Iranian presidency due to expenses and planning for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Strategic Planning and Supervision Office of the Iranian presidency issued clarifications denying this claim. According to the state news agency IRNA, the office stated on December 20 that there are three reasons for the increase in the presidential budget. Two reasons for the budget increase are directly attributed to 'commitments of the previous government' and 'regulating the salaries of a group of employees of this institution.' This office claims that the previous government left commitments amounting to 100 billion tomans, part of which included a court ruling. Additionally, the office states that the number of employees in the presidency increased under the previous government, and previously, part of their salaries was paid in a 'non-transparent and sometimes illegal' manner, which accounts for part of the increased costs to regulate these employees' salaries. Furthermore, a 'misleading comparison of the total cost credits and the capital asset ownership and specific credits, and purely cost credits' from the previous year has been introduced as another factor that makes the budget increase appear to be '82 percent,' while this office claims the actual increase is 'about 20 percent.' A group of Iranian parliament members has stated that the budget of the Iranian presidency for the year 1394 has grown by more than 82 percent. The news agency Tabnak quoted Mohsen Sarafi-Farushan, a conservative member of parliament and a member of its economic committee, stating that 'the presidency has many expenses due to the proximity of the elections [for the Iranian parliament], and these high expenses require a lot of money; after all, elections are costly.' This issue had already been denied by the Iranian government spokesperson before the presidential office's announcement. Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the Iranian government spokesperson, denied the increase in the presidential budget for participating in the elections on December 19, stating, 'If we want to engage in electoral work, we will do so through its own means, and there is no need to use the budget of the institution for that.' The Iranian parliament held a closed session on December 18 to review the budget for the year 1394, which had been submitted two days earlier, with the government spokesperson present. In the coming year, oil costs are set at seventy dollars, and the budgets of some agencies and institutions, including the military budget, have increased. In this context, Hassan Rouhani submitted his second budget bill to the parliament, with the military budget in 1394 increasing by 'seven thousand billion tomans.'