TEHRAN -- Majlis Economic Committee Chairman Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moqaddam has said that the proposal to provide cash payments of subsidies has been eliminated from the economic reform plan.

“Because of the sharp decrease in the price of oil and the decline in oil revenues, what the administration had in mind, i.e., cash payments of subsidies, will not be possible,” Mesbahi-Moqaddam told the Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.
“To implement the economic reform plan without cash payments of subsidies, it was decided that the price of certain energy carriers that do not drive up inflation will be increased,” he added.
The administration’s economic reform plan aims to redirect subsidies.
Pointing to the global economic meltdown, Mesbahi-Moqaddam said, “The decrease in the price of oil has created a new opportunity for the implementation of the economic reform plan. Until very recently, the difference between the price of energy carriers inside and outside the country was very high, but now this difference has disappeared. Thus, the groundwork for more efficient implementation of the reform plan has been laid.”
The MP rejected assertions that the decrease in the price of oil will undermine implementation of the plan.
The Majlis and the administration have agreed to implement the economic reform plan, he added.
Meanwhile, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said he has had a meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the implementation of the reform plan