Kalabarg Credit Increase Not Yet in Effect; Rollout Awaits Approval of Funding

Yaghoub Andayesh, deputy minister for welfare and economic affairs at the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare, said on the evening of Wednesday, 15 Mehr 1405 (7 October), that the government's economic team has not yet reached final agreement on the amount and the number of people covered by the plan to raise kalabarg credit, and that the plan will take effect once the exact funding figure is approved and communicated at the Plan and Budget Organization, Donya-e-Eqtesad reported. He called securing sustainable funding one of the plan's main challenges. Officials have said about 44 million people are to be covered by the increase.

The ministry's public relations office also announced that the Mehr kalabarg has been credited to household heads whose national ID ends in 0, 1 and 2; the amount remains one million tomans per person, and the increase the government had earlier promised from Mehr has not been applied. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, in remarks reported on 16 Mehr, said the president ordered an increase in the kalabarg amount more than six months ago but the government has not yet succeeded, though initial steps were taken in recent days.