TEHRAN – Based on a bill currently being discussed in the Majlis (parliament), government would be allowed to in the current year (Iranian year ends March 20) allocate Rls.6,000,000,000,000 (roughly around 652,000,000 USD) of Iran’s oil and natural gas revenues to the oil and gas-rich provinces as well as the nation’s deprived regions.

The same bill, if approved will also provide for the allocation of up to two percent of the same revenues to the same regions of the country during the remaining years of the nation’s Fourth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (2004-2009). The funds will be invested in the development projects of the regions, the Persian service of Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Sunday.

The bill had been earlier rejected in the Majlis (parliament) on the grounds that it contradicted the fundamentals of budget setting. Mofatteh, the rapporteur of the Budget and Planning Commission of the Majlis argued that government could earmark its required budget for the development of the deprived regions from the nation’s annual budget.

Speaking in favor of the bill Adel Azar, a lawmaker representing the people of the nation’s western province of Dehloran referred to the sufferings of his constituency and asked legislators when would it be the time to address the problems of the deprived regions? He noted that from the early days of the seventh Majlis (the current legislature body) representatives of these regions have disclosed the miserable situation in the disadvantaged areas.