Opposition Growing To Iran's Liquidation Of Public Assets
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
Many in Iran oppose a plan to hastily liquidate public assets with no supervision or clear process, as many fear it could massively increase corruption.
Iran International
Many in Iran oppose a plan to hastily liquidate public assets with no supervision or clear process, as many fear it could massively increase corruption.
The so-called ‘privatization’ plan announced earlier this week to be carried out over the next two years is meant to augment the country’s budget. It involves the liquidation of billions of dollars of assets belonging to the government and its affiliated entities including banks under the supervision of a seven-man team with extraordinary powers and immunity from prosecution.
The country’s ruler Ali Khamenei has approved the plan, which is not a real privatization scheme. Well-connected and powerful buyers who are often secretive funds and endowments run by powerful officials are lined up to gobble up the prize.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber who is one of the members of the supervision team claimed Thursday that the “immunity” of the team has been misunderstood. “Immunity applies to decisions, not infringement of the law,” he said. His explanation, however, has done very little to reassure the public.
Many former officials and the media have expressed deep concerns over the plan. Mohammad Reza Salehi, a logistics chief of former President Hassan Rouhani’s office, in a speech at a meeting of former officials earlier this week argued that the so-called privatization would give rise to massive corruption, degenerate the regime from within and eventually cause its collapse.
Reza Gheibi, an economic journalist told Iran International that the liquidation of assets would not help the government to overcome the economic crisis it is grappling with. “In the best-case scenario, it may balance some of the budget deficit,” he said, adding that transferring these assets to individuals and entities and companies connected with Khamenei’s office, who would be the likely beneficiaries, would give them control over the economy.
The new owners will use these assets to preserve the regime but if the regime is toppled, they will form a class of oligarchs with the power to control the economy, Gheibi said. “It’s a win-win game for the leader’s office and those close to its circle of power.”
In a tweet Wednesday, Iran's exiled prince, Reza Pahlavi, accused Khamenei of plundering the country’s national wealth “greedily” with the so-called privatization plan. “Plunderers should be aware that legal immunity will not help them, and the plundered assets of the Iranian nation should [one day] be restored to the treasury of the nation,” he wrote.
Right before the ‘privatization’ was announced, Mokhber misleadingly claimed that the former royal family had “stolen” the crown jewels when the Shah and his family left before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The monarchy’s crowns and other crown jewels have been held in the Treasury of National Jewels in Tehran in the past four decades but have not been seen by the public for two years and his accusation worried many that these had been sold or stolen.
The claim, however, was disproved when minister of cultural heritage Ezzatollah Zarghami, published photos of his visit to the treasury with the crowns on display.
In a speech Thursday, head of the Mostazafan Foundation (Bonyad Mostazafan), Parviz Fattah, referred to other invaluable properties of the royals , including expensive art, a 500,000-piece stamp collection, bejeweled swords and daggers, and a unique vehicle collection including a gold-adorned vehicles belonging the to the Shah’s father, King Reza Pahlavi. Fattah’s mention of these assets, which have also remained in Iran, has worried some over the possibility that these invaluable national assets are also going under the hammer under the plan.
According to a report by Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, the deputy head of the Customs Administration has recently said that ships are stranded at ports – mainly at Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni (Imam Khomeini port) in the Khuzestan province and Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province -- waiting to unload their cargo.
The official said that the goods, a large part of which are food and animal feed, cannot be unloaded also due to a lack of permits necessary for them to be cleared. Some of the essential goods need three or four permits from the Ministry of Health, Standard organization and Plant Protection Organization, which oversees the quarantine processes.
He said that about 1,800 to 2,000 trucks are being loaded every day and transferred from Imam Khomeini port, but the number of the trucks does not seem to be enough to avoid the blockage.
But the main impediment for clearance of these goods has been lack of foreign currency for a long time. Importers need to receive US dollars or other foreign currencies from the government to pay suppliers before the ships would anchor at the ports and discharge their cargos. Iran is currently in a crisis for not having enough foreign currency and the US dollar has reached a historic high. One dollar can buy 450,000 Iranian rials, while five years ago the exchange rate was around 35,000.
The ships have to declare their goods first, and then the customs administration should remove the obstacles in the way of their clearance within seven days, but the process is not working smoothly. But the suppliers of the goods await payment first before ordering the ships to dock.
Since the government has removed the subsidy in the form of cheap dollars for the essential goods, many importers face difficulties providing the needed foreign currency.
In January, Iran’s judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said tens of ships have arrived in territorial waters of the country, but the Islamic Republic cannot unload them therefore the country must pay fines for the delay in discharging cargos. The delay in payments is the main reason that has disrupted flows of goods into the country.
Most ships should receive full payment right before they dock at a port to unload their cargo. If payment is not arranged, the ships wait off the coast. “Some of these ships are paid $25,000-65,000 per day as demurrage,” noted Ejei.
Some of these goods, which are not unloaded, added Ejei, “are damaged due to long waits by the ships, but these goods are necessary for the country,” he underlined.
Iran's currency has dropped by 30 percent since September and both the government and private importers face a financial crunch.
Food is exempt from the US sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, but the impact of the sanctions on Iran's financial system have created complex payment arrangements with international companies.
Reuters reported on December 21, that dozens of merchant ships with grains and sugar are stuck outside Iranian ports after weeks of delays in payment.
Moderate Aftab News website reported that the lawmakers were going around in the parliament (Majles) on January 31, gathering signatures in support of the motion. However, those who support the idea do their best to conceal their identity before the motion is tabled at the Majles.
The website said that the lawmakers appear to fear reactions by Raisi and other ultraconservatives to what they are doing. Nonetheless, their names cannot be kept a secret for long. Aftab News said that they even refused to talk to reporters about the motion that signifies their dissatisfaction about Raisi's performance.
Others at the Majles, including hardliner Mohsen Pirhadi told Aftab News that questioning the president about his performance is not wrong and is part of the parliament's supervisory mandate.
It appears that some cabinet ministers' manoeuvres to evade impeachment pushed the President into the questioning trap. After all, Raisi was the one who did his best to prevent the impeachments regardless of lawmakers' complaints about several cabinet ministers' inefficiency, wrote Aftab News.
Although lawmakers appear to be more determined this time to question Raisi, the website said that it is unlikely most deputies would vote for the motion. Meanwhile, Lawmaker Ahmad Alireza Beigi said he does not believe that Majles would take such a step. However, he said that first, cabinet ministers should be impeached and then if the plan for impeachment does not go ahead smoothly, the lawmakers can question Raisi.
Meanwhile, a Khabar Online website report on February 1 said lawmakers are planning to question Raisi on 6 grounds. According to the website, this is the second call for questioning Raisi during the past 8 months. The first time, only two lawmakers signed the motion. According to the law, at least a quarter of the 290 lawmakers at the Majles need to sign a questioning motion if it is going to go any further.
According to Khabar Online, if the motion progresses this time, the lawmakers will ask questions about "the chaotic situation of the forex market and failing to issue electronic coupons to provide essential commodities to the nation."
Khabar Online quoted one of the unnamed lawmakers who was collecting signatures in support of the motion as having said some of his peers have welcomed the idea of questioning the President, but some others are too scared to sign the request for the motion."
In April last year, Lawmaker Mostafa Hosseini Ghotbabadi had even said that lawmakers have called for designating the president as incompetent, a motion that kicked out Iran's first President Abolhassan Banisadr in June 1981.
Raisi has been most recently criticized for feeding the nation with false information and fabricated statistics about his achievements during a televised interview earlier this week. During the past months the figures he presented about inflation, employment and economic growth were seriously challenged by the media and even by hardliner newspapers published by the IRGC.
The media have been questioning Raisi's performance in the areas of housing, employment and controlling prices. The most important point made against Raisi's figures is that while the official inflation rate in January was 51 percent, He still insists that it is no higher than 40 percent.
Iran’s currency, rial has fallen to 450,000 to the US dollar speeding up inflation that is expected soon to surpass the official rate of 51 percent. All government attempts to manipulate the forex market have so far failed.
Iran International received an audio recording from a January 30 meeting where Mohammad Reza Salehi, a logistics chief at the Presidential Office under President Hassan Rouhani, spoke bitterly about the current situation in Iran. The meeting took place between former presidential aides and provincial governors with former Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri.
Salehi argued that Khamenei's supervisory role should be emphasized while his executive powers need to be limited in a bid to control his successor's behavior.
He said that as a result of the uprising in Iran, reformists and moderates have four options before them: Hoping for a foreign military attack; joining the protesters and helping t revolution in Iran; doing nothing and hoping that the regime will implode as a result of increasing financial corruption. The fourth and last option is working hard to bring about real and serious reforms in the structure of the regime by reducing the power of non-elected and non-accountable offices and strengthening the political structure's republican nature and restoring the people's right to determine their fate.
Salehi added that the first three options are dangerous for Iran and Iranians and that reformists should choose the fourth option that is pursuing reforms.
Salehi, who appears to be a committed reformist, in fact made some of the same arguments his peers have made for years, but Khamenei has reacted by mostly banning them from state structures with the support of hardliners and the Revolutionary Guard. However, asking to curtail Khamenei's executive powers is a new demand by a reformist.
Salehi then pointed out that a series of destructive measures have been taken by the government recently including the controversial ‘privatization plan’ announced by the heads of the three powers of the government. The measure, he said, includes putting a couple of major natural gas refineries (Parsian and Jam) at the disposal of the Imam's Executive Headquarters, a subsidiary holding that operates under the aegis of Khamenei's office.
According to Salehi, the other destructive measures being furthered by the government includes a new legislation to restrict freedom of speech by barring everyone including state officials, political activists and the media from commenting on social, economic, cultural and political affairs before the most senior officials make their definitive comments.
A similar measure, Salehi maintained, was legalizing the practice of giving crude oil instead of money to settle government debts to those who have carried out projects. Meanwhile, Salehi criticized the government's financial plans and said that the budget bill for the next Iranian year starting in late March has been drawn in a way that would make Iranians poorer.
He said: "In the budget bill the government's revenue is supposed to increase by 40 percent while taxes are to rise by 60 percent. This comes while the cash handout to the poorer Iranians will not be increased, and public employees will receive just a 20 percent raise. This will only increase poverty in Iran."
Speaking about the recent protests he said, "What took place was a protest not a riot," as state officials insist. He also made it clear that "Those detained were not tried fairly. Hasty trials led to executions which was tantamount to systematic massacre."
Meanwhile, he revealed that former police chief Hossein Ashtari had suggested to go on TV and apologize for the murder of Mahsa Amini in September and remove a few officers involved in the case to calm popular anger, but he was ordered to mightily confront the protesters.
Salehi then asked Jahangiri to brief Khamenei on the country's current situation and convince him to hold free and fair elections, uphold the people's rights, attach more importance to elected bodies and regulate the President's relations with other powers.
He also suggested that as the next Supreme Leader might oppose holding any referendum, Khamenei should be convinced to agree to hold a set of referenda to omit the word "absolute" from the leader’s title. There should also be votes about resuming political ties with the United States, banning military's intervention in political affairs, doing away with the discretionary vetting of presidential and parliamentary election candidates, implementing the nuclear deal (JCPOA) and agreeing to accept the terms of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force, an international watchdog).