Iran’s parliament approved a plan to issue food stamps [Feb. 24] every third month to beneficiaries of the Imam Khomeini's Relief Foundation and the Welfare Organization, more commonly known as Iran’s poor.

The stamps for staples of rice, sugar, oil and meat are designed to support the value of existing welfare payments, which have been eroded by high Inflation in the Islamic Republic. They are the brainchild of Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of parliament and a prominent government critic who has a doctorate in economics from Britain’s Nottingham University. According to Tavakoli, the stamps will be issued to the 7 million poorest Iranians and have been made necessary due to the high inflation caused by Iran’s currency crisis and the Ahmadinejad administration’s poor fiscal control.

Although the bill though passed with a big majority, it has been criticized by loyalists of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his IMF-supported subsidy reform plan, which is designed to admit Iran into the World Trade Organization by stripping price supports on fuel and food.

Ahmedinejad’s allies are trying to scupper the plan. Critics have said that the proposal undoes the work achieved by the subsidy reforms and will “send Iran back to the past,” implying the dark days of the Iran-Iraq War when coupons were the norm. Seyyed Ebrahim Ebrahimi, a member of the presidential office parliamentary directorate, said the plan is pointless because the government already saves 20% of oil revenues in its national development fund, which is in part used to support the poor.