Iranian Parliament votes to eliminate subsidized exchange rate: Report

In a session debating the Iranian administration’s proposed budget plan for the next Iranian calendar year on Sunday, Iranian lawmakers voted 194 to 42 to eliminate the low exchange rate, IRNA reported.

An amended article in the budget plan stipulates that the Iranian administration will have to offer “electronic coupons” for those imported essential goods that would have been eligible for the subsidized exchange rate to ensure that the Iranian people will be able to purchase these goods at the same rate of mid-September 2021.

However, later on Sunday, Rahim Zare’, a spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s Budget Review Committee, denied reports that the Parliament had voted to eliminate the subsidized exchange rate.

He said the Iranian lawmakers had merely stipulated that the Iranian administration would have to offer electronic coupons for goods if it chooses to remove them from a list of imported commodities eligible for the subsidized exchange rate.

Zare’ said the Iranian administration had been given the discretion to eliminate or keep the subsidized exchange rate for the next Iranian calendar year.

Iran currently uses three different exchange rates, the subsidized rate, the market rate, and a rate controlled by the Central Bank known as the NIMA rate