Some Iranians capitulating on oil prices. Bullish from a contrarian perspective?
05
oil-press
oil prices will not pick up, expert
tehran, dec. 26, irna -- an iranian expert says that at the present
international critical situation when the oil prices are not expected
to rise in future, iran has to correct its taxation system and boost
export of non-oil commodities as the sole alternative in order to
compensate for the consequent budget deficit.
in an interview with the english-language daily tehran times
published here saturday, university lecturer, mohammad qoli
yusefi, recommended iranian officials to think seriously to reduce
dependence on oil because of various reasons.
''first of all, the industrialized economies are now
concentrating on services instead of industry. secondly, due to
energy-saving devices, the demand for oil has been reducing over the
past few years and will be reduced in the future as well. thirdly,
attempts to replace oil with other sources of energy have born
fruit. fourthly, gas is a cheap and easily accessible substitute for
oil. hence, all these reasons indicate that we should not expect an
increase in the demand for oil.''
yousefi further called on iranian authority to make serious
efforts to reduce and even put an end to country's dependence on
oil, because ''the oil exporting countries have failed to integrate
oil into their economies. in most of these countries oil industry has
created only one percent of the total employment.''
pointing out that reliance on oil revenues as the main source of
income by oil producing states has resulted in an ailing taxation
system, he believed that ''any slash in oil incomes adversely affects
the tax incomes with a gap of six months to two years in all these
countries.''
''one remedy to this serious problem is correction of our tax
system. in addition to that, we must adopt deregulation and
facilitate export of non-oil goods. our production system at home,
too, needs reconsideration. unless these measures are taken, we will
have to depend on oil which may lead towards an economic crisis.''
vd/ks
end
::irna 26/12/98 11:33 |
