The head of the Plan and Budget Organization says the parliament should no longer demand prices to return to September 2021 levels.
Masoud Mirkazemi, the head of the Plan and Budget Organization, stated that when the budget was finalized, the events in Russia and Ukraine had not occurred, and the third price surge was not anticipated in the budget. Therefore, when we say we should return to September 2021, we either have to accept that the people will bear the costs, or we need to increase their subsidies.
If we accept either option, we should no longer say prices should return to September. Instead, the criteria should be based on March and the time when the budget was finalized, as the budget was set with a deficit. If the Islamic Consultative Assembly does not accept this, we need to clarify the subsidies, and hopefully, we can allocate more subsidies. We have not yet sent the subsidy reform bill to the parliament to clarify this issue.