Source: Iran’s official “Press TV”:
As Iran heads toward the June presidential polls, Reformist hopefuls and Principlist incumbents clash over the country’s oil revenues.
Reformist presidential hopeful Mir-Hossein Moussavi took a swipe at the Principlist government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, questioning how Iran’s oil revenues had been spent.
Moussavi said Iran’s oil revenues stood at 270 billion US dollars during President Ahmadinejad’s term in office — the four-year period extending from 2005 to 2009.
“The public believes that during this period the government has earned an amount which equals one third of the country’s thirty-year oil revenues and are curious to know what this money has been spent on,” Moussavi said during a press conference.
He went on to demand the government provide Majlis and the nation with documents and statistics to verify how the country’s oil money has been spent.
In response to remarks made by President Ahmadinejad’s rival Moussavi, government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham dismissed the figure presented by the Reformist critic, saying the oil revenue stood at 173 billion US dollars.
Elham went on to accuse the Reformist camp of “exaggerating the numbers” and launching a “psychological warfare” against the government of President Ahmadinejad.
This is while the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) — in an official report — put the country’s oil income at 280 billion US dollars which is 10 billion more than the figure announced by Moussavi.
The government spokesman added that the government of former Reformist president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami is the record-holder in dipping into the country’s treasury.
“The government of Reformist president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami spent 130% of the country’s oil income,” Elham said.
The ongoing discord comes as Iran’s National Audit Office earlier issued a report for parliament (Majlis) revealing that $1.058 billion in surplus oil revenues pertaining to the 2006-2007 budget had not been returned to the treasury.
The chief Iranian auditor in March took the case of the missing $1.058 billion to its prosecutor for a full investigation.
The auditor’s deputy head on the Iranian parliament’s budget affairs, Fereydoon Hemmati, said that the case of the $1 billion in surplus oil revenues — which has yet to be found and returned to the state treasury — was undergoing legal inquiry.
Due to an increase in the price of crude over the past three years, Iran ran a surplus account for oil revenues. Under the country’s law, any additional oil income must be deposited in the treasury or the foreign exchange reserves.
Following the revelation, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office, saying their assessment would “mar” the government’s image and “incite the people” against his administration.