TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran has scrapped the country’s wealthiest citizens off a list of people receiving monthly cash handouts in a small step toward easing the burden on the budget and freeing up more government funds, an official said Wednesday.
The move, which will free up about $3 million a month of government money, is the latest in Tehran’s efforts to juggle cash and wean the nation off subsidies in an oil-dependent economy suffering from a steep drop in global oil prices.
But it will also likely be another test of public support for moderate President Hassan Rouhani as Tehran negotiates a conclusive deal with world powers over its controversial nuclear program. That deal, expected to be finalized by the end of June, is meant to ensure that Iran cannot make a nuclear weapon in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Iran began handing out the monthly $15 in cash to all Iranians – a population now of about 80 million people – in 2010 as compensation for cuts in food and energy subsidies. The handouts were introduced by Rouhani’s predecessor, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was subsequently criticized for allocating more than 90 percent of the money generated by subsidy cuts to the program.
Labor and Social Welfare Minister Ali Rabiei was quoted Wednesday as saying that 200,000 wealthy Iranians – as well as Iranians living abroad – have been eliminated last week from the list of those getting the handouts.