Radio Farda's investigations reveal that the budget for the "Tehran Mayor's Office" in the year 1403 has doubled compared to previous years; a significant portion of this budget is allocated as financial aid for government programs in Iran, such as the "Martyr Hamdani Jihad Plan" and the "Spiritual Programs of the Basij." Funds are also distributed among influential religious and propaganda institutions of the Islamic Republic, such as the "National Foundation for Chastity and Hijab" and "Astan Quds." It is not clear what these amounts are spent on, and the justification from the Tehran Mayor's Office for distributing the budget among these groups and institutions is vague. For example, the largest amount (150 billion tomans) is allocated for "assistance to" the implementation of the government program known as the "Martyr Hamdani Jihad Plan." However, aside from the name of this plan, which is named after a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), there is little information available about its implementation details; Hossein Hamdani was in charge of the "Mohammad Rasoulallah Tehran" Corps during the crackdown on the 2009 protest movement and was killed in Aleppo, Syria, on October 8, 2015. Another entity, known as the "Dabeel Khazai Foundation," receives what appears to be a small amount (3 billion tomans). This organization was established by the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in 2005 to financially support "mourners and activists of Shia religious gatherings" and is managed under the Islamic Propagation Organization.
According to the approved budget of the Tehran Municipality for this year, about 4,800 billion tomans from the Tehran Municipality's resources are allocated to the "Office of the Mayor." If we compare the Tehran Mayor's Office budget with the total national budget, we will see that the budget for the "Office of the Mayor of Tehran" in 1403 exceeds that of many government institutions, including the "Presidential Office" and the "Ministry of Interior." Research by Radio Farda's data mining group shows that in 1402, the total budget for the Tehran Mayor's Office was about half of this amount, meaning less than 2,400 billion tomans; in other words, the budget for the Mayor's Office has doubled in one year. This is while the official inflation rate in the country, according to the Statistical Center, is 41%, and according to the Central Bank's calculations, it is 52%. Of the total 4,800 billion tomans allocated to the "Office of the Mayor" this year, more than 760 billion tomans are allocated as assistance to religious, propaganda, political, social, and sports institutions, with the largest share going to religious and propaganda institutions. This amount (760 billion tomans) constitutes about half a percent of the total budget of the Tehran Municipality for the year 1403, which includes the budgets of all regions, departments, and the municipality's headquarters.
Among other groups and institutions receiving such assistance are the "National Foundation for Chastity and Hijab," "Quranic Organizations," "Cultural and Spiritual Programs of the Basij," "Student Gatherings and Mourning Processions," and lesser-known names such as "Haydar Karar Group" and "Cultural Complex of the Bi Bi Zobideh Shrine." Some other government, military, or sports organizations, including the "Tehran Governorate," "Criminal Investigation Police," "Martyrs Foundation," and the "Olympic Committee," or other institutions under the supervision of Ali Khamenei, such as "Astan Quds," also benefit from seemingly small and occasional assistance from the Mayor's Office. Regarding some of these lesser-known organizations and groups, there is little information available, such as the "Dabeel Foundation" mentioned earlier or the "Hamdani Plan," which has limited news coverage in Iranian news agencies, with no detailed information available.
In recent years, many similar government and military projects have been introduced by Iranian officials that have received funding from public resources, including the national budget, while little information is available about them. Islamic Republic officials often cite the goals of these projects as "poverty alleviation" and improving "social harms." Radio Farda previously published an investigative report titled "The Share of Military Budget Recipients in Iran in 1403," which presented the IRGC budget in detail in an infographic, mentioning some similar ambiguous projects such as "Martyr Chamran," "Nasim Rahmat," and "Martyr Haj Rezvan." In the table below, a description of 62 budget lines of assistance from the Tehran Mayor's Office to individuals and legal entities is available.
Sources: 1- Tehran Municipality Budget Law for the year 1403 - Detailed Appendix pages 201 to 203 2- Tehran Municipality Budget Law for the year 1403 - page 493 3- Tehran Municipality Budget Law for the year 1402 - page 113 4- National Budget for the year 1403 - budget lines number 101000 and 105000 in table number seven.