The budget bill for fiscal year 2008-09 can help improve the national economy, vowed rapporteur of the Majlis Joint Commission, Mohammad Mehdi Mofatteh as parliamentarians began debating the bill on Tuesday.
Increase in development funds and further control over expenditures would help the economy prosper, he explained. Budget bill for the fiscal year March 2008-2009 has also paid due attention to the low income strata, IRIB reported on Tuesday.
“The commission has accurately determined how much the government can withdraw from the Oil Stabilization Fund and also the areas it can spend this money.“
Meanwhile, Iraj Nadimi, a Majlis deputy of Lahijan and Siahkal in northern Gilan province, as a proponent of the bill, said, “We should not expect that this budget bill will solve all problems facing the country.“
He called on the Majlis to vote for the general outlines of the bill and put forward their views to amend the document.
An MP from the western Ilam city, Dariush Qanbari spoke against the bill, saying its budgeting system is not transparent. This budget bill cannot be implemented, he observed.
“If we approve the bill, we are permitting the government to do whatever it wants in its provincial visits. These decisions (taken by the government during its provincial visits) are unreasonable, impractical and populist.“
Qanbari made the remarks in reference to allocation of funds for various projects promised by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visits to provinces.
Defending the bill, Qorbanali Nematzadeh Qarakheili, who represents Qaemshahr, Savadkouh and Jouybar in northern Mazandaran province, said this year’s bill is significant since the government used a new budgeting system, doing away with traditional method of the past four decades.
“Next year’s budget is more specialized, transparent and takes less time for the Majlis to review.“
Hailing the cut in spending by state organizations, he stated more attention was given to incomplete projects since their commissioning would create jobs.

On average 72 million people seek train tickets each year.

One of the main challenges facing the railroad sector is the wide gap between the demand and the transportation services offered. The number of passengers eager to use the railways is much higher than the capacity. On average 72 million people seek train tickets each year, while this sector has the capacity to transport only 25 million passengers.
The Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010) has set a target growth of 15 percent annually for the railroad network. The target materialized in the past two years but there is still a long way to go. The government has doubled the funds allocated to the railroad sector in the budget bill for fiscal year 2008-09. The sum, if approved by the Majlis, would help the sector flourish.
The new managing director of Raja Passenger Trains Company, Mahmoud Jafari, was quoted by the Persian daily ’Iran’ as saying on Tuesday that the sector grew by 15 percent this year.
“It is predicted the number of train passengers will reach 24.5 million this year, up from last year’s 21.3 million.
A 15-percent growth rate has been planned for the coming Iranian year to March 2009 as well, he stressed. This can be achieved if infrastructural development is expedited.
“If funds going into auto manufacturing industries in recent years had been injected into the railroad sector, we would now have a nationwide network providing fast services,“ he complained.
The only way to narrow the gap is to attract investments to bring about significant changes in facilities within the next two years.
To encourage private sector to invest in the railroad networks, Jafari said, certain incentives have been considered.
Iranians travel by train for trips of over 580 km on average. The occupancy rate of train seats which was 85 percent last year has reached 95 percent this year. The company has 1,337 cars of which 1,074 are in use.

A part of Mobarakeh Steel Complex

Shares of Mobarakeh Steel Complex will be floated in the stock market today.
Five percent of equities of the steel giant, or 790 million shares, will be offered in one block at the bourse for price evaluation. The base price for each share has been set at 3,900 rials.
The buyer should pay 20 percent of total value in cash (within a month), IRNA reported on Tuesday.
Other 15 percent of shares of the steel giant will be offered in three blocks in the bourse on February 16, 17 and 18.
Buyers showed no interest in block sale of over 3.1 billion stocks of Mobarakeh Steel Complex on November 25.
Privatization Organization earlier predicted that no investor is able to pay over 550 billion rials in cash to purchase such a large number of shares in block.
As a result the shares are now offered gradually in the stock exchange in four five-percent blocks. Shares of state companies are transferred to private sector in line with Article 44 of the Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization in key economic areas and downsizing the government.

Iran will start development of a 320-megawatt power station in Iraq’s Najaf province, a grant from its neighbor, a provincial spokesman said.
“The station will alleviate the electricity shortage in Najaf and Karbala,“ Ahmed Dubeil, the provincial governor’s spokesman, told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
“This year, an electricity development institution in Iran will start building a thermal station for producing electricity in Najaf’s northern area of Al-Haidariya.“
He said that land has been earmarked for the project, which is being given to Iraq as part of a grant, he said, UPI reported.
Najaf and Karbala, two of Shiite Islam’s most important cities, have been suffering from power shortages. Though the rest of the country is too, the two cities have complained as it’s affecting their role in religious tourism.
Iraqi Minister of Electricity Karim Waheed Hasan led a delegation to Iran last week. Iran was also awarded a contract for a power plant in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. The ministry has complained that those and other non-Iranian projects need to be started soon or the firms will lose the contracts.

Arak Petrochemical Complex development project in Markazi province was inaugurated on a trial basis concurrent with the Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-11) celebrations, marking the victory of 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, minister of industries and mines said that Iran has taken great strides towards development by distancing itself from those who claim to be global superiors and through reliance on its own scientists and experts, the Persian daily ’Jam-e Jam’ reported on Friday.
Ali-Akbar Mehrabian elaborated that the industrial sector has a particular status in view of the high value-added of industrial goods.
Underlining that small quick return economic enterprises play a major role in creating value-added, he said that some 170 nations have achieved good results by setting up such entities.
About 454 billion rials and 154 million euros were invested in implementing the petrochemical development project, he said.