The Expediency Discernment Council Deemed Parts of the 2018 Budget 'Contrary to the General Policies of the System'

"The High Supervisory Board for the Implementation of the General Policies of the System," formed within Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, announced that six clauses of the 2018 budget bill are "contrary to the general policies of the system," and this matter will be communicated to the Guardian Council. According to Mehr News Agency, the High Supervisory Board reviewed the national budget for 2018 during its session on Tuesday morning, March 8. Following the reading of the oversight committee's report and explanations from the head of the Planning and Budget Organization, members voted to identify six clauses from the parliament's resolutions as "contrary to the general policies of the system." This board has stated that this opinion will also be reviewed by the Expediency Discernment Council, and ultimately the opinion of this body will be communicated to the Guardian Council. The report did not specify the details of the clauses identified as "contrary" to the "general policies of the system." This is the first statement from the "High Supervisory Board for the Implementation of the General Policies of the System" regarding the annual budgets approved by the parliament. The rejection of the parliament's resolutions based on the Expediency Discernment Council's decisions has previously drawn criticism, with some members of the sixth parliament and experts considering this action unconstitutional. The rules and composition of the "High Supervisory Board for the Implementation of the General Policies of the System" were approved in a session of the Expediency Discernment Council on Saturday, October 21. This 25-member board consists of the head and secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, the heads of the three branches of government, and 20 members elected by the members. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran delegated "supervision over the proper implementation of the general policies of the system" to the Expediency Discernment Council on April 6, 1998, and this council ultimately approved the "Regulations for Supervision over the Proper Implementation of the General Policies of the System" on June 10, 2005. According to these regulations, a commission titled "Supervisory Commission" is formed to oversee the implementation of the "general policies of the system," consisting of the head and secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council and two representatives from among the members of each of the thematic commissions of the council elected by the commissions themselves. In subsequent changes to these regulations, the Speaker of the Parliament is required to send a copy of the drafts and bills for the Expediency Discernment Council's information. According to these laws, if the Expediency Discernment Council deems a draft or bill contrary to the "general policies of the system," it raises the issue of "incompatibility and non-conformity" in the parliament's committees, and ultimately, "if incompatibility and non-conformity remain in the final resolution of the parliament," the Guardian Council "will act based on the opinion of the Expediency Discernment Council." The Expediency Discernment Council was established in the mid-1980s at the behest of the then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini to resolve differences between the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Guardian Council, but after constitutional changes in 1989, it was officially recognized as one of the institutions of the Islamic Republic responsible for advising the Supreme Leader. Since then, by the decree of Ayatollah Khamenei, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani held the presidency of this council, but after his passing, the Supreme Leader recently appointed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as its president following changes in the composition of the council's members. The Iranian parliament has approved the budget for the coming year and sent it to the Guardian Council. Hassan Rouhani has described the 2018 budget bill as different from previous years and a manifestation of his electoral promises. On January 1, he also stated in a meeting with the heads of the parliament's commissions that "in total, nearly 200 trillion tomans out of 360 trillion tomans are lost due to issues beyond the government's control." An examination of the 2018 budget shows that the share of religious, military, and security institutions that are not accountable to the government has increased. After the details of the 2018 budget were announced, campaigns emerged in cyberspace under the title "Change the Budget in Favor of the People," with some participants in these campaigns calling for a reduction in the budgets of religious seminaries, state media, and military institutions.