Ahmadinejad challenges parliament over subsidy bill

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slammed Iranian parliament for altering his latest bill regarding changes in government subsidies and claimed the parliament’s proposal will be to people’s disadvantage and should therefore be put to a public poll.

Speaking on a live TV program, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintained that people should be consulted in order to see whether they are in agreement with the decision of the parliament or not. Such a public poll can only take effect if two third of the parliament agrees to it.

In the past month, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government and the Iranian parliament have been debating how the resulting surplus from cutting subsidies will be used.

The government had proposed to use it as a 40 thousand billion touman ($40 billion) government income but the parliament has reduced the sum in half.

The Guardian Council has also approved the changes that the parliament has made to the government subsidy bill which has thus resulted in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for a public poll regarding their decision.

Ahmad Tavakoli, head of the parliamentary research committee and other economists had said that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s proposal would shoot the inflation rate in the New Year up to fifty percent.

Ahmadinejad dismissed these claims and accused the opponents of his proposal of lacking the necessary training in economics.

He claimed if the estimates of his detractors are right, putting this bill into effect is “treason,” but he added that he is certain that their calculations are incorrect.