Cartoon by Amjad Rasmi

Rouhani Says Iran Budget to Counter U.S. ‘Maximum Pressure’

Bloomberg: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani submitted a draft budget for the coming fiscal year designed to offset the impact of Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy on the Islamic Republic.

U.S. sanctions have led to record-low oil exports for Iran -- traditionally the country’s largest source of foreign exchange earnings. Bureaucrats in Tehran are earmarking steep increases in revenue from taxes, fees and penalties to try to compensate for the loss of crude earnings and faster inflation in the aftermath of protests around the country.

The “endurance and counter-sanctions budget,” which covers the 12 months ending March 2021, comes to around 4.8 quadrillion rials, or around $115 billion based on the fixed government exchange rate and about $37 billion based on the unregulated exchange rate, according to state media.

Last year, before the U.S. ended sanctions waivers on imports of Iranian oil, the government’s share of the budget amounted to around $97 billion, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. Inflation hit 47.2% in October according to figures published by Iran’s statistics center.

Rouhani’s budget came weeks after a heavily criticized increase in gasoline prices sparked some of Iran’s bloodiest protests since the 1979 revolution. Unrest was seen in cities throughout the country as mostly young, working-class men took to the streets, clashing with security forces.

Earlier this week Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh defended the gasoline hike, saying it had already saved around 22 million liters of petrol a day, holding off Iran’s need to import fuel by several years.

Rouhani said the next budget will still include projected income from oil, condensate and gas, though it will be a third of the $32.6 billion allocated in this year’s spending bill and is projected to amount to just $10.8 billion, based on the fixed, official exchange rate. A $5 billion loan from Russia for previously agreed power plant developments is also included the bill, according to a live broadcast on the website of the official parliamentary news service, ICANA.