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Cash-strapped Iran gives ministries less than half their budgets

TEHRAN, Jan 10 (AFP) - Iranian ministries have received less than half their nominal budgets this year as government revenues continue to plummet because of low oil prices, the official news agency IRNA reported Sunday.

"The government has been able to allocate between 40 and 45 percent of the budget earmarked for ministries and state organisations," said parliamentary speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Nateq-Nuri said during Sunday's parliamentary session that the government is facing extreme pressure due to the collapse in oil prices, which have reached 12-year lows.

Iran -- which is OPEC's second-largest oil producer and earns 80 percent of its hard currency from crude exports -- has seen revenues fall off by 40 percent, leaving a budget shortfall this year of some 6.3 billion dollars.

President Mohammad Khatami has called for various measures to reduce the nation's dependence on oil revenues, including more efficient tax collection and an increase in non-oil exports.

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