Lawmaker Warns of Repeat of January Events / Wage Increase Is Government's Duty / Some People Are Speaking Irresponsibly

The deputy chair of the parliamentary Social Committee stressed that a wage increase in the second half of the year is the government's obligation, not a choice. He said that when the government is unable, for any reason, to control inflation, it cannot refuse to raise wages and support people's livelihoods.

According to the report of Ambassador Arjan Ali Jafari Azar, in response to the question that the salary increase was supposed to be done in the second half of the year, but this has not happened so far and the government also announced that this increase could cause an increase in inflation. Can a salary increase really be effective considering the high inflation? Good governance requires that the country does not have inflation for 12 months and that people can have a proper plan for their lives.

The government cannot complain about salary increases in the second half of the year

According to ILNA, the vice chairman of the Social Commission added: But when we are faced with inflation for any reason, in the shadow of lack of supervision, sanctions, lack of price control and wrong decisions, and this inflation has reached a three-digit rate in some issues, we should think. Unfortunately, the overall inflation of the country is over 60%. In such a situation, the government should support people, especially people with low and fixed income. The logic is the same.

He continued: During the review of the budget that was done before last year's Eid, these forecasts were made. It is available there and in the case of parliament negotiations, and the speaker of the parliament said that if the country's inflation is high, for the second half of the year, the government should present a salary increase bill and related matters. This issue is a kind of legal responsibility of the government.

Regarding whether salary increases will cause inflation or not, this member of parliament said: Based on what happened in the past and experienced in the past years, I use the year 1401 as an example. Because at that time it was said that the 58% increase in workers' salaries is inflationary. But when the year ended, the report presented by the Statistics Center, the Central Bank and various assemblies showed that the effect of this increase on Iran's inflation was less than three percent; While the salary increase was a big increase and reached over 50%.

He clarified: Therefore, first of all, the government should support the people and the main task should be to prevent inflation, curb inflation and control inflation so that people's plans for life are not disturbed. When such conditions are not possible for any reason, the government cannot complain. Even some policies themselves have become inflationary, in such a situation it is not acceptable to make such a fuss, make excuses and put forward arguments that are not logical, about salary increase. Ignoring people's livelihood demands and some irresponsible comments can intensify dissatisfaction and lead to events similar to last year's January.

It is not possible to increase the price of currency and gasoline, but people's livelihood demands were ignored

Jafari-Azer added: Salary increase based on what exists in practice and even in theory does not necessarily cause inflation. In practice, as I said, this matter has been experienced in one or two years. Inflation in this sector has either not occurred at all or has not been significant compared to the high inflation of our country. We are unfortunately facing a high double digit inflation.

He continued: If this salary increase is carried out, according to the opinion of experts and according to the experience of previous years, it will not have such an effect, but we must support people's lives. Now, if the government doesn't increase salaries, doesn't increase wages, doesn't increase kalaberg, doesn't increase cash subsidies, and on the other hand, if the price of currency increases for any reason, and the government abdicates itself and wants to continue the next five or six months of the year with speech therapy, people will face more problems every day.

This member of the Social Commission of the Islamic Council pointed out: People face problems in buying medicine every day. There is even a subsidy for medicine there, but due to rent, corruption, lack of supervision and irresponsibility of related officials, from the Food and Drug Organization to punishments and various responsibilities, people end up losing their heads. In such a situation, the level of dissatisfaction rises and malnutrition occurs in the society, followed by repeated diseases and numerous problems.

He said: The government should pay attention to these conditions. We expected, for example, on the eve of the reopening of schools, a living aid would be considered for families with students, considering that buying an office for them now costs more than 500,000 Tomans. The government must fulfill these responsibilities.

He continued: "The government should not abandon its responsibilities, the currency price will increase, the currency price will affect other indicators, the price of gasoline will also increase with any argument, and at the same time, we should expect the parliament and all government bodies to cooperate, but on the other hand, there is no cooperation with the demands of the society." These conditions are not acceptable and the result is that people are caught and various elements of the government are condemned.

Re-increasing salary is no longer optional; It is the responsibility of the government

The Deputy Chairman of the Social Commission of the Islamic Parliament added: Therefore, I want to say that if any question or impeachment is raised, the government on the other hand will announce that we are not satisfied with this. This shows a lack of cooperation. Let the authorities cooperate and do their work. It has been almost a year now that the parliament has provided this work space for government officials and there have been almost the least warnings, the least questions and the least impeachment.

He stated: Especially since last year, since the leadership said to help the government to do its work, almost all the paths have been available for the government. In the last 6 or 7 months, the government has raised the issue of increasing the price of gasoline only twice. Therefore, I would like to say that this salary increase is, first of all, the responsibility of the government, which was predicted and announced at the time of the budget review, and this is what society expects now.

Jafari Azar emphasized: There are conditions for this issue and the conditions impose the necessity of an increase; In other words, it is not optional. If this is not done, people's lives will unfortunately face many problems. This is actually the duty of the government, which was emphasized during the budget review.

He said that the government spokesperson announced that 500,000 Tomans will be added to the price of goods, or that the price of some tithes will be doubled, while now a kilo of meat costs more than 2.5 million Tomans. What is this 1 million tomans supposed to provide in people's livelihood? He said: Unfortunately, some government officials, including the speaker, sometimes make very irrelevant statements. In general, this figure was supposed to increase and it is related to the same month of January. The one million tomans that they paid themselves at that time, at the same time they accepted that the difference due to price liberalization is not one million tomans and is more.

Jafari Azar recalled: But at that time they said that our resources are not more than this. They said that the permission that we got from Hazrat Agha and the money that we converted from the National Development Fund into Rials, for 80 million people, each person will get this one million tomans. When the government, the minister and the president appeared in the parliament session, they themselves admitted that the inflationary effect of this issue is more than one million tomans, but they said that the currency that we took and are going to receive from the National Development Fund, if we want to distribute it among 80 million people, each person will receive this amount.

This member of the Social Commission of the Islamic Council clarified: Another meaning of this issue was that its inflationary effect is greater than today; That means they had to pay more than one million tomans. Accordingly, they promised that this amount will increase from May.

Jafari-Azer said: Therefore, even now, based on the indicators presented by the program organization, the Ministry of Economy, and especially the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, in their July report, it was stated that at least 700 thousand Tomans should be added to this amount. This is despite the fact that in the inflation of July, we are now talking about an increase of 500 thousand tomans; With this amount, even if you buy meat, it is not enough to buy two packs of chips. This amount does not compensate for these increases.

He added: "The government has increased the price of the currency, and in addition to the budget resources that are planned for Kalaberg, it has other resources at its disposal due to the increase in the price of the currency." The conditions of the country are war conditions and the people are in dire need of the government's support and the government must provide this support.

Jafari Azar pointed out: It is not acceptable to announce on the one hand that the foreign exchange resources of the country have no problems and on the other hand to put this amount of pressure on the people. Society does not accept these conditions. These kinds of comments also cause the same events that happened in January of last year. I said that some people speak irresponsibly and God forbid it may cause irreparable problems for the whole country.