Iran's reform-majority parliament gave final passage to President Mohammad Khatami's budget for the next Iranian year after 12 days of often fiercely partisan debate.
Just ahead of June's presidential elections, reformists pushed through a $46-billion package late Tuesday aimed at clearing some of the obstacles to Khatami's liberalising reforms.
The budget allows direct funding for political parties for the first time and increases subsidies for basic goods and poor families, who have traditionally been strong conservative supporters.
But conservatives harshly criticized the political slant of the bill, which also includes sharp cutbacks in funding for conservative-controlled institutions such as state radio and television.
Reformists charge that state TV helped to undermine the reform movement by broadcasting footage from an "un-Islamic" political conference in Berlin, which led to long jail terms for 10 allies of the president.
The budget, which covers March 2001 to March 2002, still needs formal approval by the conservative-led oversight Guardians Council.
Speaker Mehdi Karubi and his aides turned off the microphones of conservative MPs some 30 times to stop them from speaking "off the subject" as the budget debate highlighted the ongoing political battle between the two sides.
"The partisan political approach of this budget, and the fiscal weakening of institutions such as state television and the judiciary, will do no-one any good," former MP Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi said this week.
MPs increased subsidies for essential goods such as meat, wheat, rice and medicine, and sets aside $28 million for political parties.
Total spending marks a 24 percent increase over the previous year, due in part to Iran's swelling oil revenues driven by a surging worldwide market over the past few months.
Iran, the second-largest oil producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, gets around 85 percent of its hard-currency earnings from oil exports and the Khatami government has been pushing to reduce dependence on petroleum.
Iran has taken in around $20 billion in oil revenues in the current year. But Dorri-Najafabadi charged the new budget would actually increase Iran's dependence on oil as well as increase unemployment and inflation.
Per-barrel oil prices were set at $16, while on Monday the OPEC reference basket of crudes stood at $24.99.
The bill also authorizes foreign debt, currently at $10 billion, to expand to $17.3 billion and sets inflation and growth rates at 12 and five percent respectively.
The budget also specifically sets aside, for the first time, funds for political, cultural, sporting and social activities for the Islamic republic's minority Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian communities. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
