Esmaeil Hosseini, describing the Monday meeting of the Parliament’s Energy Commission, said: The meeting was held with officials from the Ministry of Oil, the Plan and Budget Organization, the Parliament Research Center and members of the Energy Commission, and the provisions and requirements of the country’s overall budget bill for 1405 regarding oil were reviewed.

He noted that the report from the Planning and Budget Organization to the Combined Commission mentions a 5% budget dependency on oil, but when accounting for borrowing from the National Development Fund, targeted subsidy resources and collective resources and expenditures, oil’s share in the budget is estimated to be more than 35%. He added: Also, if tax revenues related to the performance of the National Iranian Oil Company, gas, value-added tax, domestic sales of petroleum products, petrochemical industries and energy-intensive industries – which are indirectly dependent on oil and gas – are considered, it becomes clear that the country’s overall budget remains directly and indirectly dependent on oil.

The spokesperson for the Parliament’s Energy Committee stressed: The amount of oil sales in the 1405 budget is nearly the same as in 1404, but it is predicted that the price of oil in 1405 will decrease compared to 1404, which could reduce revenues from oil and petroleum product exports. In this regard, the estimate of oil revenues in the budget bill for 1405 is more realistic compared to this year’s projections.