[Akbar Alami represents the people of Tabriz in the seventh Majlis (Parliament). He has been an outspoken critic of the Ahmadinejad administration. Below is an excerpt of his interview with Rooz, discussing the President’s proposed budget for the coming year.]
Rooz (R): Mr. Alami, what is the general feeling in the Majlis over the proposed budget?
Alami (A): What I say is based on my opinion and what I infer from the opinions of other representatives. The budget has been prepared amateurishly. It is very indirect and general. Because of the bill’s ill foundation, our economic problems might even get exacerbated if the Majlis sends the bill through a surgery, in the short time remaining before the New Year. So it is suggested that we don’t dig deeper into the details and pass the bill as a whole measure. There are many contradictions in the budget too. For example, the President claims that the budget has been based on oil revenues of 33.7 dollars per barrel. On the surface too the budget seems to agree with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s claim. If you analyze the budget’s accounting, and divide the expected oil revenues by the number of barrels sold, you get the figure 33.7 dollars. But if you calculate it in a different way, as dictated by budget rules, the real price of oil comes out to be 45 dollars per barrel. Nevertheless, there has been an attempt to reduce dependence on oil and increase revenues by taxing and privatizing state-owned oil companies.
R: Do you think these predictions are possible?
A: In light of the administration’s record, these are imaginary targets. In fact, it seems like more than 80 thousand billion riyals (about 9 billion USD) of the government’s expected revenues are not going to materialize. For example, about 7400 billion riyals (831 million USD) of government’s revenue are supposed to be generated from the sale shares in state-owned companies; but the government was only able to generate 480 billion riyals (54 million USD) of the predicted amount. Compare yourself and see how much difference there is. It is important to mention that since the beginning of 1991 up to last year the government was able to sell only 27000 billion riyals (3 billion USD) worth of shares in state-owned companies. In effect a major portion of government’s revues are not going to materialize.
R: How can the government finance these deficits?
A: They are hoping to give away profitable government enterprises to the private sector, in accordance with Article 44 of the Constitution, which was recently endorsed by the Supreme Leader. This is the only window of hope for the government. If, as Mr. Ahmadinejad himself predicted and told the Majlis, the United States’ policy is to reduce the price of oil, then one expects the government to propose a deflationary budget and reduce expenditure. But government expenditure has decreased by only 5.6 percent compared to last year, and state enterprises swallow a huge chunk of the budget like dragons, up to a point where 70 percent of the budget has been allocated to government banks, offices, and affiliated organizations. In other words, only 30 percent of the budget belongs to the public.
R: Can’t the Majlis fix these problems?
A: Although it is the government’s financial statement and one of the most important measures to come to the Majlis, the budget was given to us very late. The Majlis does not have the time to go thorough an expert review. The reviews must be done in the Majlis’s specialized and joint committees, and they don’t even have the time to flip the pages of the budget. Our colleagues don’t have the time to review it once. In effect, in the remaining time Majlis can only review 7 to 8 percent of the budget, which is not very professional. Not too much can be expected from the Majlis in changing this bill.
