The hottest economic policy issue in the last two and a half years of the Islamic Republic’s history has been the reform of the much-criticized across the board public subsidies. The issue simmering since the early 1990s has recently come to a boil with the passage of a comprehensive subsidy reform law by the Iranian Consultative Assembly – Majlis – in early January 2010. The law, called by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s “greatest economic project of the last 50 years” is scheduled to go into effect in the second half of the current Iranian calendar year. It promises to have profound and far-reaching implications for such economic indicators as personal savings and consumption, inflation, growth, employment, domestic income distribution, and external trade.
The Issue In A Nutshell
The Islamic Republic has since its birth been an abashed welfare state. By a generous interpretation of its constitution, the government has been engaged in managing the citizens’ life from birth to death – and even beyond. Thus, marriages are assisted by loans or grants to prospective couples; offspring are educated free of charge; school graduates are given jobs; new families are provided with housing; the unemployed poor are placed on welfare; and low or no-cost bank loans are given for purchases of even some discretionary expenditures such as cars, travels, and other items. As part of this welfare policy, the government has also been subsidizing the product... >>>
Person | About | Day |
---|---|---|
نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |