KERMAN - The government's dependency on oil revenues was more than 40 percent as predicted in the last year's budget, said the Director General in Charge of Treasury at the Ministry of Economy and Finance Yahya Aghalu here Tuesday. Speaking at the fifth gathering to review the financial issues of the country's regional water organizations, Aghalu said that a large portion of the country's revenues comes from the oil exports.

Last year, he added, the central bank sold an equivalant of Rls. 10,428 billion in foreign exchange earned from oil exports, which was equal to 55-56 percent of the government's total budget. He said that foriegn exchange generated by the oil exports is first deposited in the central bank and after classification into services and goods categories is sold to the public at different rates.

Aghalu said that in the abscence of oil revenues, there would not have been custom duties and taxes on imported goods, indicating that the true share of oil revenues in the national budget is even higher than the above mentioned 55-56 percent of the government's overall revenues. (IRNA)