Iran taps wealth fund to spend $1bn on subsidized food for households
Iran has tapped its sovereign wealth fund to finance a scheme that provides subsidized food for low-income and middle-class families ahead of the holy month of Ramadan which will begin in early March.
Reports published in local media on Monday said that Iran’s National Development Fund (NDF) will allocate $1 billion in finances for a program that offers heavy discounts on the price of major food items consumed by households.
Tapping Iran’s wealth fund for emergency needs requires the approval of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s Fars news agency said the government had secured Ayatollah Khamenei’s approval, adding that the resources will be returned to the NDF in the coming years.
Media reports said that the funds will be available for two rounds of the so-called electronic voucher program before and in the middle of Ramadan.
Some 60 million people will be covered by the scheme, the reports said, adding that poorer families will receive more food assistance during the program.
The electronic voucher program was launched in late 2022 and continued until April 2024 under a previous government that sought to help households struggling with food inflation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and foreign sanctions.
The current government stopped the scheme when it came to office in mid-summer with authorities saying they did not have the required funds to continue the program.
Iran has previously tapped its wealth fund for emergency purposes, including for fighting the coronavirus pandemic and for dealing with the impacts of floods that destroyed rural areas of the country in 2019.
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