The head of the Planning and Budget Organization says the parliament should no longer say prices should return to September 2021.
Masoud Mir-Kazemi, head of the Planning and Budget Organization, said that when the budget was set, the events in Russia and Ukraine had not happened, and the third price surge was not accounted for in the budget. Therefore, when we say we should return to September 2021, we either have to accept that the people will bear the cost, or we have to increase their subsidies.
If we accept either option, we should no longer say prices should return to September. Instead, what should be the basis for action is March, the time when the budget was set, because the budget was set with a deficit. If the Islamic Consultative Assembly does not accept this, we must specify the subsidies and, God willing, allocate more subsidies. We have not yet sent the subsidy reform bill to the parliament to clarify this issue.