Iran’s Majlis speaker Ali Larijani announced the establishment of a special economic committee to study the government’s economic reform plan on June 23. This was after a joint meeting of the Majlis and the cabinet that deliberated on measures to cut energy and bread subsidies and instead transfer subsidies directly to families with lower incomes. Mr. Larijani called on the government to move carefully with regard to the economic reform plan and to examine properly all aspects regarding the likely impact of such a plan. The chairman of the Majlis Economic Committee Mesbahi-Moqaddam added that the Ahmadinejad government intended to reform the banking, tax, and insurance sectors along with other aspects of the macroeconomic system.

In other developments, the Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani criticised the government for the slow implementation of the Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution, which was amended to foster economic competition through privatization measures. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a decree in July 2006 to privatize state industries by amending Article 44 of the Constitution, which had banned private ownership of state institutions.