NCRI – Hassan Rouhani, the president of the clerical regime in Iran wants to increase the budget of the Revolutionary Guards nearly 50 percent and the overall defense budget by more than a third despite international sanctions and the drop in oil prices.
On Sunday, Rouhani presented to parliament a draft of budget of 8,400,000 trillion rials ($312.13 billion at the official exchange rate) for the fiscal year beginning March 20, 2015 – an increase of 6% on the basis of oil being priced at $70 a barrel this year.
The defense spending will increase by 33.5% to approximately 282,000 billion rials, most of which will be paid to the Revolutionary Guards who will see their budget grow by nearly 50%.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) estimates that Iran’s economy has shrunk by a cumulative 8.6% in the past two fiscal years. Brent Crude ended at $69.07 on Friday, down 40% from June’s 2014 high of $115.06.
According to official Iranian figures, the country produces 2.7 million barrels of oil per day, of which 1.4 million barrels are exported.