Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the budget plan for the next Iranian year of 1392 (to start on March 21) envisaged less dependence on crude oil revenues.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the weekly cabinet session, he said the government has planned to replace crude oil exports with oil derivatives to save the value-added available in processing of the crude oil, enabling national economy to enjoy the lucrative downstream industry in the oil sector.
In a relevant event in November, the Iranian parliament's Energy Commission prepared a bill to decrease the country's crude exports by nearly one third in the current Iranian year (started on March 20) in retaliation for the western sanctions against Iran's oil sector.
"The government is required to reduce oil exports up to one third compared with the last year (March 20, 2011 to March 19, 2012) in line with the goals of the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan, the Islamic Republic's overall goal of preserving national independence and as a requirement of the present time," the bill said in one of its paragraphs.
The last paragraph of the bill also allows the government, if necessary, to decrease the country's crude exports in accordance with the foreign currency (dollar) prices during the implementation of the Fifth Development Plan.
After the UN Security Council ratified a sanctions resolution against Iran on June 9, 2010, the United States and the European Union imposed further unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors.
Tehran has always dismissed West's pressures and stressed that sanctions and embargos merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path of progress.
The EU measure was ratified at a ministerial meeting in January, but the 27-member bloc deferred its implementation until July 1.
Meantime, analysts believe that the EU started implementation of the sanctions against Iran at a time when it is experiencing its worst economic conditions.
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