Rouhani outlines details of corona rescue package

TEHRAN – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, on Tuesday, announced the government’s one-quadrillion rials (about $23.8 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) rescue package is going to be spent on health care equipment and funding unemployment insurances.

Speaking in a cabinet economic meeting, Rouhani said this package has been provisioned to help low-income households and struggling businesses that have been affected by the economic consequences of the pandemic over the past two months.

According to Rouhani, as part of this package, 10,000,000-rial (about $238) loans are going to be paid to low-income households, which are currently receiving government’s cash subsidies, before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan (April 25).

The government had previously announced that about 230 trillion rials ($5.4 billion as per official exchange rate) will be offered as loans with 12-percent interest rates to small and medium enterprises and low-income households.

It was decided in the meeting that the government would shoulder the interest rates and loans will be offered without any interest, the president announced.

Rouhani went on saying that 520 trillion rials (about $12.3 billion) is also going to be offered in the form of loans to 10 prioritized business and production categories which have been affected the most from the coronavirus outbreak.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official mentioned the acceleration of the process of clearing goods from the county’s customs and said: “Of the four million tons of basic goods which have been deposited in the customs, one million have been already cleared.”

We are taking all necessary measures for clearing all of the deposited goods in the upcoming weeks, he said.

EF/MA
Original News : https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/446765/Rouhani-outlines-details-of-corona-rescue-package