Hearing of strange and outlandish actions by the Iranian government has become ordinary. Like the news of officials filling the ballot boxes with votes using the ID cards of dead people. But that is not all. Even those who are not yet born have benefits for the regime.
The state-run daily Arman on September 28, 2021, in an article entitled, ‘Economic policies enrooted the production’ quoting an economic expert Bahman Arman, about one of the strange behaviors, wrote:
“According to figures provided by the International Monetary Fund, 500,000 people migrate from Iran each year. According to recent statistics from the Statistical Center of Iran, this number has increased to 700,000.
“While the rate of migration from Iran is high among the countries of the world. For this reason, Iran’s population should not exceed 70 million people. That’s why declaring that the country’s population about 84 million is a statistical mischievousness that is being exploited.”
In Iran, 74 million people receive subsidies, the newspaper added.
Before this article, Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, former Spokesman for the Guardian Council, said, “Iran’s population is now estimated to be 83 million.”
The increase in the number of migrants from Iran is an issue that many other regime officials have acknowledged in addition to the IMF.
“The population of Iranian immigrants has more than doubled in the past three years,” says Abbas Abdi. (State-run daily Etemad, 28 September 2021)
Now the question, why is the difference between 13 to 14 million official and informal statistics to be a ‘statistical mischievousness’?
Examining the subsidies given to these 14 million which for each person is 45,000 tomans, which is 630 billion tomans monthly. That is 7.5 trillion tomans each year. That’s the amount of subsidy that is paid to people who don’t exist.
In a regime which is led by mafia gangs, this is not a strange thing, all its institutions are involved in lootings like and Mostazafan Foundation or the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs who are receiving huge amounts of money in the of the people but transfer all this wealth to the banks of other countries.
The IRIB news agency in an article titled ‘Business card in the name of one, but in the favor of another’ wrote:
“Some companies that are active in the field of corporate registration advertise that you can only own a business card by providing copies of identification documents (national id cards and birth certificates), current account numbers, certificates of non-background crimes, and copies of a degree. They even guarantee that you can get rich effortlessly after taking a training course and handing out cards to the people introduced by them.”
The outlet then deals with the people who were trapped, quoting a person called Hessam: “They told me we’d get you a job where you could have a salary of 3 million and insurance. What you do is export and exports are not taxed according to the law.
“They did not say that the foreign exchange obligation is heavier than taxes. A few months passed, but neither the work nor the big money was given. They gave me only 6 million in installments. They had taken my card with a power of attorney and called from time to time and said, ‘come sign this paper and go.’ That’s it”
The state-run outlet added that in his name, now a 32-million-euro foreign exchange has been registered, commitment from exports and his case is being pursued. Because those people haven’t imported a single currency, and now it’s unclear where they are.
However, it is clear where they are. They are in the government institutions and these media fear exposing these people. They have enough power; else they would be not able to commit such a huge crime. This is not just a hollow analysis but an explicit admission by government experts.
“The interests of power groups have always had an impact on difficult economic conditions. These groups benefit personally from this situation and, like a high wall, surround decision-makers and prevent other attitudes from passing through the wall. All these decision-makers are benefiting from one place.” (State-run daily Iran, October 6, 2021)
