The economic commission of Iran’s Parliament has spoken out against the announcement that affluent households will no longer receive cash payouts in the second phase of government-subsidy restructuring.
Behrouz Moradi, the head of the organization that is restructuring subsidies, announced on Wednesday that the administration believes there is no need to give cash benefits to high-income households.
He added that high-income families did not receive the extra 28,000-touman payment that was recently distributed.
The administration has been trying to increase the amount of cash payouts by 28,000 toumans, but Parliament has disagreed with the increase on the basis that the administration is not clear on the source of the money.
Earlier, the administration had announced that high-income families would be contacted to voluntarily give up the cash payouts.
A recent report indicated that some households had received telephone messages indicating that they should forgo the government cash benefits.
MP Fakhreddin Heydari, a member of the Parliamentary economic commission, told Fararo website: “Parliament has approved no law indicating that affluent families will be denied government benefits in the second phase of restructuring subsidies, and the only thing approved in Parliament so far is halting the second phase for now.”
Heydari stressed that the legislation on subsides has always confirmed that the cash payouts will be to all families.
He added that Parliament has not approved the implementation of the second phase of subsidy restructuring, and the administration is in violation of parliamentary legislation.
Parliament has opposed the increase to the cash payouts because the Ahmadinejad administration has not been forthcoming about the source of these payouts and appears to be already overbudget in this regard.
The head of Parliament, Ali Larijani, said recently that increasing the cash payouts at this time will only create a “storm of inflation.”
