While the Iranian regime faces unprecedented bankruptcy and budget deficits, the 2025 budget reveals a calculated strategy to divert vast sums of public wealth into the coffers of predatory foundations and institutions controlled by its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Even state-run media has been forced to admit the scandalous nature of these allocations. Setareh Sobh newspaper wrote on December 14 that a significant portion of the budget, rather than serving as a tool for national development, has become a source of income for institutions that “have neither a transparent record nor a defensible output.” The paper described these entities as “budget-eaters” whose common characteristic is a total lack of accountability.
Propaganda over public welfare
The priorities of the regime are starkly visible when comparing funding for public services against ideological machinery. According to the state-run Fararu website, while the budget for the entire country’s environmental protection is approximately 80 trillion rials, and the University of Tehran receives about 50 to 60 trillion rials, the regime has allocated a staggering 640 trillion rials for “Islamic propaganda” and religious institutions.
Specific allocations include 90 trillion rials for the Supreme Council of Seminaries, 9.64 trillion rials for the Qom Seminary Islamic Propaganda Office, and 4.5 trillion rials for the Imam Khomeini Institute. These astronomical figures stand in sharp contrast to the crumbling infrastructure and poverty affecting ordinary Iranians.
The shadow empire
The official budget is only part of the story. A vast portion of Iran’s wealth is hoarded by “sovereign” institutions that operate outside government oversight, such as Astan Quds Razavi, the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), and the Mostazafan Foundation. As noted by the state-run Ham-Mihan, these entities control significant national assets and wealth without relying on the official government budget.
Experts within the regime admit that the revenue of some of these institutions exceeds the government’s entire income. For instance, the Mostazafan Foundation openly controls over 700 companies and factories, along with thousands of hectares of prime land. Yet, these entities remain tax-exempt and answerable only to Khamenei.
A surge in funding for repression
The 2025 budget ignores the crises in healthcare, education, and the environment to aggressively fund the machinery of suppression. Reports indicate that the budget for the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters has increased 38-fold for the Persian year 1404 (2025-2026). Over the past six years, budgets for specific regime institutions have jumped between 359% and 9,616%.
This massive injection of funds is designed to strengthen repressive forces, internet censorship infrastructure, and the “Guidance Patrols,” rather than building schools or hospitals.
Systemic corruption
Masoud Pezeshkian’s government has proven powerless against these entrenched interests. As former MP Hedayatollah Aghaei told Setareh Sobh, the pressure from these “budget-eaters” is heavy. These unaccountable groups have been receiving increased funding since the era of the so-called reformist government, and any attempt to remove their budget lines faces severe resistance because they support a network of regime insiders.
The debate in the regime’s parliament is not about adjusting wages for workers or retirees, but about how to feed the suppression forces and propaganda loudspeakers. The wealth swallowed by these foundations is stolen directly from the people’s tables to maintain the regime’s survival through execution and massacre.