TEHRAN The Oil Ministry plans to cede 23 of its subsidiaries to the cooperative and private sectors now and up to the end of the Third Development Plan (March 2000-March 2005), a press report said on Wednesday quoting an official with the ministry.
The economic daily Abrar-e Eqtesadi cited Rasoul Lahijian as saying that the goals behind the measure are to lighten the heavy burden on the shoulders of government and to achieve more efficiency.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Sohofi, chief of the Public Relations Office of the Oil Ministry, said that the transfer of the subsidiaries could make the ministry more effective.
Sohofi cited the "liquefied gas distribution centers" affiliated to national petrochemical complexes and "downstream sectors within the Oil Ministry" as the subsidiaries intended to be ceded.
Touching on the privatization of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Sohofi said that 60 percent of NITC shares is to be paid to the state Welfare Organization and the Oil Ministry employees' pension fund to make up for unpaid stock options.
He said that experts of the Tehran Stock Exchange will make the necessary assessments and valuations.
Iran is proceeding with plans to privatize the state-owned National Iranian Tanker Company despite public criticism of the planned move, Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh had said, adding that it is not a subject for debates.
(IRNA)