Regardless of how much the Majlis cooperates, the administration will resort to new pretexts to postpone the plan, Mesbahi-Moqaddam told the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
Mesbahi-Moqaddam added that Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah has said that the administration must obey parliamentary approvals.
Thus, there is no logic in delaying the implementation of the plan when no new revisions are needed, the MP said.
The goal of the subsidy reform plan is to bring prices to their true market level within a five-year period. The plan mainly targets energy prices.
According to the plan, the administration is obligated to reform the energy prices by the end of the fifth development plan (2010-2015).
In a televised speech on March 19, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the implementation of the plan, based on the ratification of the Majlis, will be detrimental to the nation.
Ahmadinejad’s government has insisted it needs 40 billion dollars from subsidy cuts savings to implement the plan. Majlis approved only $20 billion.
The president suggested holding a referendum on a reform to the subsidy system that would save $40 billion and threatened his government would not implement the plan if the Majlis did not agree with the request.
Administration must implement the reform plan
MP Mohammadreza Khabaz has said that the administration must implement the subsidies reform plan very soon.
The failure to implement the plan is against the law, Khabaz, the spokesman of the Majlis economic commission, told the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
He added that President Ahmadinejad has only two weeks left to prepare the ground for the implementation of the plan.
The lawmaker said if the executive branch deems problems in implementing the reform, it should present an alternative legal proposal to the Majlis so that Parliament can make a serious decision.
The administration can expect only 20 billion in saved revenues from subsidy cuts, he stated.
HK/SJ
END
MNA
Your Comment