A year ago, President Hassan Rouhani’s budget proposal for the next Iranian year (beginning March 21) sparked a heated internet debate among Iranians. The main cause of their anger was the lavish funds allocated to certain state agencies and institutions. However, what was left unnoticed and indeed in need of much more public attention was the draft budget's section on state-owned enterprises.
A litany of problems in Iran are thought to be the byproducts of budget decisions, including high liquidity growth, abnormal bank interest rates, costly business activity, money laundering, capital flight and smuggling of goods, to name a few.