PressTV... Lawmakers in Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) have endorsed the government’s proposed budget bill for the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20).
Majlis MPs voted by a majority for the 9,980 trillion rial (329.63 billion dollar) budget during Tuesday’s parliamentary session.
Reports say the new budget allows the government to set the price of oil at $40 a barrel and to export 2.25 million barrels per day.
Iran says it has increased its crude export to 2.1 million barrels per day, almost double the production levels before a nuclear agreement with UN Security Council members and Germany went into effect in January.
The bill will now go to the Guardian Council, the constitutional supervisory body, for ratification before becoming law.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani presented the draft budget to Majlis back on January 17.
The budget plan was submitted to the legislature for review and approval with a 42-day delay.
Rouhani told lawmakers back then that the plan had been devised on the assumption that Western sanctions would be lifted under the nuclear deal.
He added that the government did not want to tender the draft before the sanctions were scrapped.
The president said his administration was determined to reduce the Iranian economy’s dependence on oil revenues as crude prices have dropped to a record low in recent years.