The financial crisis of Social Security is the result of years of looting and irresponsibility. Now, instead of paying back the massive debts owed to it, a new rule has been imposed: “Sell, or you will not survive!” — even if assets are sold off for next to nothing.

The sale of so-called loss-making companies is neither a solution nor a reform. It is more like throwing dust on the flames of a crisis that itself was created by sham privatizations, short-sighted policies, and corrupt decision-making.

The reality is that the motive behind advertising the sale of some companies is not transparency or structural reform, but tax evasion. According to the Seventh Development Plan, if the Social Security Organization does not list some of its shares on the stock exchange at least once a year, it must pay 20% of the profits from those assets as tax to the Ministry of Economy. That share grows larger every year.
So these sales are less about improving the situation of the organization or the workers, and more about escaping a tax trap.

But who is actually buying? With what capital? For what profit? Crisis-ridden companies in a closed economy are only traded on paper. No real money changes hands, and no productivity is guaranteed.

Social Security is neither state property nor a tool for plugging budget deficits. Its wealth is the product of millions of workers’ hard labor. The rushed sell-off of these assets is nothing less than the organized plunder of a historic trust.

Editorial Board of Pezhvak-e Kar Iran (Echo of Iran’s Labor)