Hosein Samasami, a member of Iran’s parliament’s economic commission, said the government is carrying out the same policies that led to the protests on 18 and 19 Dey 1404, and that the parliament and its chairman also played a role in implementing these policies.

Samasami said these policies may generate revenue for the government in the short term by increasing prices, but in the long term they will lead to an increase in the budget deficit and inflationary pressure. He added that by continuing this trend, the government has turned into “the engine driving the production of poverty in society.”

He also criticized the food ration coupon (kala-barg) policy and said that, in his calculation, the increase in the official exchange rate and the removal of the 28,500 toman currency rate impose more than five million tomans in monthly inflationary costs on each person, while the amount of the food ration coupon is one million tomans.

Samasami also described President Pezeshkian’s remarks about a shortage of foreign currency as incorrect and said that last year, 15 to 15.2 billion dollars in currency was provided, and that it was possible to offer it at the rate of 28,500 tomans.