Summary Text was approved Monday by the Guardians Council and sent to parliament
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has approved its budget for the next fiscal year with oil accounting for just a quarter of revenue after a global fall in crude prices, local media said Tuesday.
The text was approved Monday by the Guardians Council and sent to parliament, just days before the March 21 deadline, the Iranian New Year.
The final budget is around 8,500 trillion rials ($297 billion, 280 billion euros) according to Tasnim news agency, which published the outline of the text without providing details on oil revenues.
"The weight of oil in the budget has dropped significantly and now reaches 25 percent while it was 50 percent over the last three years," parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Monday.
He added that the budget was "disconnected" to oil prices.
Larijani said the oil price per barrel was calculated at a minimum of $40, against a government forecast in December of $72 per barrel.
If prices rise above $40 per barrel in the second half of the year, the surplus revenue would be invested in infrastructure projects, he said.
Iran s Oil Ministry said crude has averaged $44 a barrel since the start of the year.
Iranian crude exports have fallen from more than 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2011 to about 1.3 million bpd because of an oil embargo imposed by the United States and the European Union in response to Tehran s nuclear ambitions.
Iran has the world s fourth largest oil reserves and crude is its main source of foreign exchange earnings.
The country says its nuclear programme is aimed at reducing its reliance on oil. It has been accused of seeking atomic weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, a charge which Tehran denies.
