Government Retreats on 1403 Budget; Equalization of Pensioners' Salaries Included

The head of the Planning and Budget Organization announced a revision of next year's budget and fundamental reforms within it, stating that costs for equalizing pensioners' salaries and tables related to some budget expenditures have been included. Following the rejection of the government's proposed budget for 1403 last week, the government sent a revised version to the parliament, and according to the parliamentary leadership, the general framework of this budget will likely be put to a vote by representatives on Wednesday. Davood Manzoor mentioned in a television interview last night that the main concern of representatives was the issue of equalizing pensioners' salaries, emphasizing that representatives insisted this matter be explicitly mentioned in the bill, which is why it was included. On December 21, parliament members opposed the general framework of the 1403 national budget bill. However, the reasons for this opposition went beyond the claims of the head of the Planning and Budget Organization, as the head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce stated, "What we see in the government's proposed bill is the most ambiguous budget proposal since the Constitutional Revolution and has no alignment with the Seventh Development Plan." Jabbar Kouchakinejad, a member of the Planning and Budget Commission, attributed this opposition to a "deficit exceeding 300 trillion tomans," which he claimed was "unrecoverable." Another criticism of this budget was the proposed increase in salaries and wages for the coming year, which, according to reports, was less than 20%, while the annual inflation rate in November remained above 40%. The proposed increase of over 40% in tax collection in the budget was also among the issues criticized by representatives and experts, leading to the rejection of the budget's general framework in the public session of parliament. The Joint Budget Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly also reported that next year, personnel credits for employees, pensioners' salaries, and other benefits would face challenges. Today, Tuesday, December 28, the parliamentary leadership announced that in accordance with Article 182 of the internal regulations of the parliament, the 1403 national budget bill has been submitted to parliament with amendments. Analysts believe that the government, by amending issues such as equalizing pensioners' salaries on the eve of elections, has worked in favor of the representatives, while other issues such as the increase in taxes and salaries will not change. With inflation at 45% in Iran, the government is increasing the salaries of employees and pensioners in a staggered manner. The head of the Planning and Budget Organization stated that the budget deficit is due to "imposed obligations" in the Seventh Plan. The Planning and Budget Organization responded to the "Research Center of the Parliament"; inflation increased by 13.5% with the rise in the exchange rate of essential goods. The proposed budget had a "deficit" of 300 trillion tomans; an economist stated: this is not a budget, but an accounting ledger. The general framework of the 1403 budget was rejected in parliament. A parliament member stated: subsidies should be increased to 3 million tomans. The dispute over salaries escalated; the head of the Planning and Budget Organization stated: there is no news of a 30% increase.