According to Alireza Saleh, the government has had a list of its companies to be privatized this year, including stakes of state-run refineries and those of Heavy Equipment Production Company (HEPCO), but has not been successful to divest all of the planned stakes.
"The remained shares will be offered in 18 stock firms and companies next year," he said.
In its planned budget for the current Iranian year (ends on March 19, 2020), the Iranian government was expected to earn some 106 trillion rials (about $2.5 billion) of income from divesting shares of state-run companies to the private sector.
In Iran, implementation of a privatization plan aimed at more productivity, investment making, job creation, promotion of trade balance, more competition in the domestic economy, and reducing financial and management burden on the government has been under the spotlight over the past decade.
The law on the implementation of the general policies of Article 44 of Iran's Constitution on privatizing state-owned companies was declared in 2006 in a bid to downsize the government and promote the private sector’s role in the national economy.
The government envisioned a large privatization program in the Fifth Five-Year National Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of the state-owned firms each year. Under the present interpretation of Article 44, some state-owned companies have been privatized to reduce their financial burden on the country’s budget and also increase their productivity.
MNA/4868828