The statement of the Neda-ye Iranian Party: The anti-internet plan to protect cyberspace must be completely removed from the government’s and parliament’s agenda.
The Neda-ye Iranian Party, by publishing an analytical statement about the current conditions of the country in economic and livelihood areas, budget writing, internet space management, and the process of international relations and interaction with neighbors, criticized the current situation and offered its proposed solutions for changing the current conditions.
The full text of this statement is as follows:
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Concern about livelihood and daily life has become the worry of the Iranian people these days, and apart from a few partisan allies of the current government, there is no one else defending the performance of the thirteenth government. Although the seven thousand-page executive program of Mr. President was never unveiled, what can be seen from its unseen results is the lack of prudence in decisions and the creation of livelihood and economic crises. The dollar exceeding forty thousand tomans, the twenty-million toman coin, the uncontrolled increase in car prices, the critical condition of the housing and rental market, and the disruption of income-generating platforms for a large number of small internet businesses, which nearly fifteen million people’s employment depends on, are among its achievements, turning the future of hundreds of thousands of families into a nightmare.
The government’s performance so far has shown that the entire government is devoid of economy as a science and management as an art. Nevertheless, with the excuse of submitting the 2023 budget bill by the government to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, we find it necessary to announce our concerns and warnings about the country’s economic conditions and to warn the responsible gentlemen out of compassion and concern.
1. As was easily predictable for everyone, Mr. Raisi’s government fell into a pit that the supporters of the current government had dug for the previous government and are now stuck in it. The candidate of yesterday and the president of today considered the country’s economy independent of interaction with the world during the election period.
Numerous warnings and recommendations to the government also bore no fruit, and the responsible gentlemen left foreign policy to the mercy of God, hoping for the harsh winter still on the way to Europe, and also subjected the country’s economy, which they thought would not be tied to the JCPOA and FATF, to a storm of inflation that has started blowing on people’s lives, with the risk of turning into a storm of economic and livelihood hardships.
2. With the new government coming to power in the United States at the end of 2020, Iran’s oil sales increased from an average of 300,000 barrels to about one million barrels. Nevertheless, Iran still lacks the ability to sell another one million and three hundred thousand barrels. In addition to the inability to sell one million and three hundred thousand barrels of oil, the sold oil has been sold far below the global price due to sanctions.
High transaction costs are also imposed for transferring the money. This event, in addition to causing the waste of public funds and citizens’ rights, has reduced the government’s revenue sources. The government has also imposed this deficit on citizens through tax increases and money printing, compensating in various ways from their pockets.
3. According to official statistics, Iran’s trade volume is currently 100 billion dollars, 15 to 20 percent of which is spent on buying expensively, selling cheaply, and currency exchange costs due to sanctions. While the government dreams of a 5 percent growth next year, Iran’s GDP, based on the official exchange rate of 28,500 tomans, reaches less than 300 billion dollars, with the cost of sanctions-related transactions exceeding 5 percent of GDP, which instead of going into the pockets of sanctions traders and international brokers, could have been part of the country’s economic value-added and growth.
4. According to the official announcement of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Iran’s trade volume with Afghanistan has decreased by 40 percent and with Iraq by 26 percent, and Turkish traders are replacing Iranians in these countries. In other words, the thirteenth government, in addition to apparently not knowing the language of dialogue with the world, is also unable to maintain relations with neighbors despite declaring the expansion of relations, a subject that affects Iranian entrepreneurs and workers.
5. According to the statistics announced by the Turkish president, this country’s export volume in 2022 reached over 254 billion dollars. Iran’s total exports and imports, according to official statistics, are 100 billion dollars, which due to sanctions limitations, Iran’s useful trade volume can be estimated at 80 to 85 billion dollars.
In a situation where, according to the 20-year vision document, Iran was supposed to become the region’s first economic power by 2025, last year only Turkey’s exports were three times the total of Iran’s exports and imports. It is unnecessary to remind that Turkey, unlike Iran, lacks oil reserves. This issue can also be generalized to other countries in the region. Saudi Arabia alone exports one billion dollars of oil daily.
6. The government’s economic surgery to remove the 4,200 toman exchange rate, with all that display and media maneuvering, by reviving the same previous policy by the new head of the Central Bank with the determination of the 28,500 toman exchange rate and the explicit support of the first vice president, practically continued the same method seven steps higher, which according to their own claims against the previous government will create new rents for influential groups to re-import the same goods and increase their wealth.
7. The slowdown of the internet and the filtering of social networks, while for the current government has found a security meaning and is justified by unacceptable reasons from the perspective of protection, is the technical infrastructure of many businesses in today’s society and is directly and indirectly connected to millions of jobs and is a source of income for many individuals, who now even their minimum livelihood is at risk and whatever they say, they find no listening ear.
8. Today, we are in a situation where the per capita income of Iranians, even independent of its unequal distribution, is at a level lower than most countries in the region and even lower than Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, against the prediction of over 40 percent inflation next year, which is practically embedded in the 2023 budget bill, the wages of workers and employees have an average increase of 20 percent, which means a reduction of at least 20 to 30 percent in the purchasing power of employees and a shrinking of the table of the middle and impoverished classes next year.
9. The lack of coordination of the government’s economic team and their lack of mastery over economic issues and concepts in some cases amazes the country’s experts and well-wishers. The first vice president’s response to the president regarding the promise to build one million housing units a year and the president’s repeated emphasis during his trip to Yazd that they will deliver 4 million housing units, or the contradictory and unscientific statements of the economic team regarding employment, inflation, and the economic progress trend all indicate the government’s uncoordinated archipelago.
10. It seems that the country’s 45 percent inflation will probably record a fifty percent record by the end of the year with this slope. In these conditions, the president and the minister of economy announce a 19 percent reduction in inflation, while they took over the country with a 45 percent inflation according to official statistics announced by the Statistics Center and will probably end the year with a 50 percent inflation.
The president attacks the previous government and blames it for his inefficiency, forgetting that in 2020 Iran’s oil sales had dropped to 300,000 barrels, and the global price had fallen below 30 dollars, while Mr. Raisi’s government, with the sale of one million barrels and the increase in oil prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war to over 100 dollars, has delivered the current conditions to the people.
Despite seeing no prospect of government consultation acceptance, the Neda-ye Iranian Party presents its suggestions for overcoming the current conditions and saving the country’s economy as follows to the president.
1. Recent developments, especially the international consensus forming against Iran in recent months, indicate a precise and extensive planning by foreign enemies, where planners have managed to invest in the weaknesses and mistakes of officials. The winter sleep of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the lack of prudence of the minister and his deputies is no secret to anyone. The Neda-ye Iranian Party compassionately suggests to the president to remove the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Iranian negotiating team and replace them with professional and capable diplomats, so as not to tie the lives and properties of Iranians to the inefficiency of these individuals.
2. The government must accept that interaction and communication with the world and using science in running the country does not mean relying on foreigners. Improving the business environment, overcoming recession, and controlling inflation is only possible by overcoming the space of sanctions and uncertainty in the country’s economy. Removing global trade barriers through the JCPOA, removing financial and banking barriers connected to it through FATF, and using the capacities of global markets will return the country’s economy to the path of improvement.
3. In a situation where the respected head of the Planning and Budget Organization is unable to continue in his field of activity and has reportedly submitted his resignation, is it necessary to repeat the experience of ignoring warnings about Mr. Salehabadi’s performance at the Central Bank and the activities of the late Rostam Ghasemi in the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development this time regarding Mr. Mirkazemi? It is necessary to prioritize the change of the head of the Planning and Budget Organization.
4. The government needs real coordination in the economic field. As was predictable, increasing the number of economic management centers like the economic assistant, the economic deputy, the first vice president, and the Ministry of Economy has only led to the government’s economic disorder. If this situation is not managed, the government’s ability for any reform action will be taken away.
5. Some of the budget figures are very regrettable. While the budget for implementing the Clean Air Act has been halved, the budget for some institutions like the Supreme Council of Seminaries has increased by more than 60 percent, the preservation of sacred defense works by 159 percent, the Office of Seminary Advertising in Qom by 55 percent, and many other institutions, including the IRIB, which recent events have proven their inefficiency, have also received similar percentage increases.
We ask what the reason for these unnecessary budgets is in a situation where retirees’ salaries, knowing the minimum 40 percent inflation next year and 45 percent today, have only increased between 15 to 25 percent, and whether the efficiency and impact of the organizations that have had such budget increases have been evaluated.
6. Iran has prominent economists, both domestic and foreign, up-to-date professors in the field of development, and experienced entrepreneurs in the industry. It is not appropriate for a country with so many elite figures in the fields of economics and entrepreneurship not to use this valuable capacity in major economic decision-making.
7. The anti-internet plan to protect cyberspace must be completely removed from the government’s and parliament’s agenda because it contradicts the general will of the Iranian people. Insisting on continuing filtering and pursuing the so-called protection plan, which has many ambiguities and is a slaughter of the nascent digital economy and the country’s innovation ecosystem, has no meaning other than mocking people who have become weary of all these mismanagements.
8. Filtering Instagram and WhatsApp and Google services, as it imposes restrictions on people’s rights and freedoms, is against the letter and spirit of the constitution and must be lifted as soon as possible. Internet filtering in these economic and livelihood conditions is pouring water into the mill of sanctions that benefit Iran’s enemies and crushes the country’s weak economy between the gears of external pressure and internal self-sanctioning.
In conclusion, we emphasize that the Neda-ye Iranian Party has never allied itself with anything other than national interests and citizens’ rights throughout its existence, and for this reason, despite minimal alignment with the previous government, it was also an unabashed critic of its performance in those years. Here too, representing the people who were supposed to be the masters of the officials, it warns the president and the honorable government firmly and without any consideration for the protection and safeguarding of national interests and citizens’ rights.
The statistics and figures absolutely do not show a positive outlook for the government’s set of actions and policies, and the continuation of the current trend will place the country on the brink of crisis after crisis, leading to nothing but the absolute destruction of the country’s economy. We hope the honorable government takes these warnings seriously and thinks fundamentally about solving the roots of economic problems and, instead of dreamy actions without practice, acts based on the opinions of economists.
Neda-ye Iranian Party, January 15, 2023
