Monday, February 23, 2009

To Subsidize or not To Subsidize

Iranian legislative and executive bodies are exchanging pleasantries over a bill to eliminate government subsidization of products and services. Although this step has been advocated by many liberal Iranian economists, many are concerned by the potential consequences of a hasty action. Those concerns have forced many to caution government. This past week parliament has returned the bill to the cabinet. President Ahmadinejad announced that he would not resubmit it, if his original plan were not accepted. It seems that so close to an election, the government is very cautious and is using this opportunity to shelf the bill for now.
The reason is simple enough any increase in the prices will have dire political consequences for any candidate and right now the incumbent does not desire that.

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