Coll 28/59 ‘Persia. Financial Situation’ [‎9r] (28/842)

*">
*
111 ft
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PI
lOPERTY^P
PERSIA.
s
1
i
x i
I
April 23, 1935.
CONFIDENTIAL.
i
L
i
jO^R (
1 V_/
Section 6.
[E 2585/365/34] No. 1.
Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen to Sir John Simon.—{Received April 23.)
(No. 148 E.)
Sir, Tehran, April 4, 1935.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 147 E of to-day’s date, reporting on the
Iranian budget for the year 1314, I have the honour to transmit herewith a
translation from the Messager de Teheran of the 3rd April of a supplementary
budget law which was approved by the Majlis on the 13th March.
2. The financial provisions of the law are as follows :—
(1) Three hundred million rials (£4,615,000) for railway construction, made
up as follows :—
{a) Thirty million rials from the credit for economic institutions
in the budget for 1313. This sum to be paid in replacement of funds
said to have been expended from the sugar monopoly revenue for
purposes other than railway construction.
(h) One hundred and twenty million rials from the sugar
monopoly revenue.
(c) One hundred and fifty million rials to be borrowed from the
National Bank by the Ministry of Roads and Communications.
(2) Two million, seven hundred and five thousand pounds from the national
reserve, as follows :—
(a) Twenty-five thousand pounds credit to the Government.
(b) Two million pounds for military supplies.
(c) Six hundred thousand pounds as an advance to the Ministry
of Roads and Communications for railway construction and railway
material.
(d) Eighty thousand pounds to the Department of Industry to
meet payments due on sugar factories.
(3) Twenty-five million, six hundred thousand rials (nearly £400,000) from
economies to be realised in the budget for 1314, as follows :—
(a) Twenty million rials for expenditure in connexion with sugar
factories.
(b) Five million, six hundred thousand rials for expenditure in
connexion with the cement factory An East India Company trading post. .
As the budget for 1314 provides for a surplus of less than 300.000 rials, it
would be interesting to know how these economies are to be effected.
(4) Thirty million rials (£461,500) for equalisation of transport freights,
presumably a form of export bounty, to be provided as follows :—
Ten million rials from revenues accruing from the motor vehicle
monopoly.
Fifteen million rials from profits made on purchase and sale of
export certificates.
Five million rials from economies to be effected in the budget for
1314.
3. Article 12 exempts imports of gold from the payment of customs duty,
and article 13 makes the entry of silver into Iran free, subject to regulations to
be sanctioned by the Council of Ministers. Article 14 exempts for a further
period of three years from the date of its expiration the law of 1925, exempting
from customs duty imported industrial and agricultural machinery. Articles
[390 z—6] b