Iran govt running out of cash

2006-12-11 21:13

Tehran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to ask the Iranian parliament for a supplementary budget as his government's coffers will run empty three months before the end of the current Iranian fiscal year, the ISNA news agency reported on Monday.

"The budget allocated to the government will run out by the end of (the Iranian month of) Azar (December 22)," the agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"We are going to put forward a supplementary budget bill to cover the three remaining months (of the Iranian year, ending on March 20 2007) and the first two months of next year.

The president did not give a reason why the budget had run over.

The $60bn government budget - which is about one third of the national budget - finances the public sector and covers current expenditures as well as development plans.

It is the first time in years an Iranian government has asked parliament for such an additional sum.

- AFP