About 15.5 percent of Iranians live below the poverty line, said an official on Tuesday.
The director general of the social security department of the Management and Planning Organization, Majid Yarmand, told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, that “the families living below the poverty line are those earning less than rls710,000 ($407) a month in urban areas and rls480,000 ($275) in rural areas.
He said that presently, eight percent of the poor received support from relief organizations.
The bill on elimination of poverty has been drafted per the directives of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and on the orders of President Mohammad Khatami, he said, adding that the bill is to be presented to government for study.
Yarmand said the department was drafting other bills on subsidies – Albawaba.com
