Government approves removal of four zeros from national currency
The Iranian government spokesperson announced that a proposal to remove four zeros from the national currency (rial) was approved during Sunday's cabinet meeting.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the cabinet session, Fatemeh Mahajerani stated, "Consequently, 'toman' and ' qiran' will become the national currency units," IRNA reported.
She added that the process of changing the national currency unit will be time-consuming, and both currencies will be used for a period of time.
Last week, members of a committee of Parliament have voted in favor of the plan to reform the country’s national currency and restoring an old currency subdivision named qiran.
The head of the economic committee of the parliament said on August 3 that it had approved the outlines of a motion to remove four zeros from the rial.
Shamseddin Hosseini said the new motion aligns with a government bill that had been approved in 2016 but was dismantled in 2023 when the parliament passed a new law on how the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) should be governed.
Hosseini said the new motion creates a new rial, which would be equal to 10,000 current rials and would be subdivided into 100 qirans.
Under the previous government bill, Iran was supposed to change the name and denomination of its currency, with the new currency toman becoming equal to 10 rials.
The bill was approved as part of government efforts to streamline the national currency and to simplify financial transactions and accounting.
To prepare for the bill, the CBI even issued banknotes with the last four digits in a much paler color to help the public gradually adapt to the planned changes.
Iran’s current administrative government announced earlier this year that it would revive the initiative as part of its economic reform plans.