Approval of the General Budget for the First Two Months of 2016 in Parliament

The Iranian parliament approved the general outline of the two-twelfths budget for the year 1395 (2016) in a public session on Tuesday, March 15, with 160 votes in favor, 9 against, and 5 abstentions out of 203 representatives present. The approval of the two-twelfths budget means that this budget is approved for the months of Farvardin and Ordibehesht of the upcoming year, while the budget for the remaining 10 months will be approved later in the year. According to the internal regulations of the parliament, the government is required to present the budget bill by December 5, but the government submitted the budget bill for the year 1395 and the sixth development plan to the parliament on Sunday, January 17, just hours after the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement began. The parliament announced that it could not approve the budget for the next year, and the government was required to submit a multi-twelfths bill to the parliament to cover its expenses at the beginning of the year. Ultimately, the cabinet approved the two-month budget bill for the first two months of the year 1395 on Wednesday, March 9. According to the state news agency IRNA, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, explained in the public session of the parliament on Tuesday the reasons for the delay in presenting the budget bill, stating that the government was waiting for the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement to determine its exact revenues for the next year. Mr. Nobakht expressed hope that the budget for the year 1395 would be approved and announced in Farvardin. Meanwhile, Elias Naderan, the head of the budget consolidation commission, protested the introduction of the bill presented by the government during the public session on Tuesday. According to Mr. Naderan, the introduction of this bill states that 'due to the parliament's delay' in approving the budget bill for the next year, the two-twelfths budget bill for the year 1395 has been submitted to the parliament. Ali Larijani, the speaker of the parliament, also stated that the parliament made efforts to approve the budget bill before the new year, but due to limited time, it requested the government to submit the two-twelfths budget bill for the year 1395. The parliament was closed during the last two weeks of Bahman and the first week of Esfand due to the holding of the elections on March 26. The government of Hassan Rouhani had submitted the budget bill in December in the past two years, and the budgets for those years were fully approved. During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, due to delays in presenting the budget bill, the parliament had to approve the budget multiple times in the form of two-twelfths. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, previously announced the total budget ceiling for the next year as 952 trillion tomans and stated that a 5% economic growth is anticipated for the next year, with revenues expected to grow by 16% compared to 1394. In this context, the budget consolidation commission agreed to a $40 oil price in the budget bill, while seven members of parliament deemed the sixth development plan bill illegal. A member of the parliament's budget commission stated that a $40 oil price in the budget is not logical.