to approve the whole budget before Now Ruz, just enough of it to tide the government over for two months.
The president is required to submit his budget draft to the Majlis by December 6 each year. The Majlis then has 15 weeks to review and amend the draft before passage prior to Now Ruz.
But Ahmadi-nejad has delivered the budget late in every one of his seven years thus far as president. He is already almost eight weeks late. Aides said the budget would be submitted next week—but such promises have been made in past years and ignored.
It is widely assumed the president does this to force the Majlis to speed up its work and make it unable to look as deeply at the president’s proposals as it would like.
So, this year, the Majlis has decided to strike back. Deputy Speaker Shahabeddin Sadr announced the Majlis plans only to approve a budget for the first two months of the Persian year prior to Now Ruz. Then it will have until May 21 to take its time parsing the draft carefully before voting on the budget for the remaining 10 months of the year. Presumably any initiatives Ahmadi-nejad wishes to make will be put off until the 10-month budget comes up for consideration.
Ahmadi-nejad has normally been from one to two months late in submitting the budget each year. The best he has done has been to deliver the budget 32 days late four years ago. Three years ago, he set a record when he was 53 days late. Then last year, he was 76 days late and set a new record, delivering the budget February 20 and allowing the Majlis only four weeks instead of 15 in which to review his draft.
The Majlis solution—approving only a partial budget—looks much like what the US Congress does when it gets tied in knots and passes a “continuing resolution” allowing government agencies to spend at the same rate as in the previous year until the Congress sorts things out. But the problem in Washington is legislative delays; the president submits the budget in January, more than eight months before the new fiscal year begins October 1.
