TEHRAN, IRAN—The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prides himself for being a simple man living a simple life. He boasts of little in the way of personal assets except for his modest home he inherited from his father and his meager salary as a university lecturer.
But Ahmadinejad hit the jackpot when it was time to sell his 1977 Peugeot 504, which by Iranian standards was in a mint condition. The car would normally sell for around $5000.00 on the open market but the Iranian president received a $2.5 million offer from an unnamed purchaser who entered the wining bid in an auction organized by Ahmadinejad.
According to lawyer, Mahmoud Esari, who acted on behalf of the purchaser, “my client bought the car because of a personal interest in President Ahmadinejad and his spirit of anti-arrogance and anti-Zionism," said the lawyer.
The chairman of the state welfare organization, Ahmad Esfandiari, said “more than half a million bidders registered on the bidding website, with most saying they were doing so since President Ahmadinejad leads a simple life and because of his anti-arrogance and anti-Zionist stances”. He added bidders came from all over the world including “"Europe, Asia and the United States."
The state welfare organization who is the beneficiary of the proceeds said in a statement that “company who purchased the car for 25 billion rials wanted to remain anonymous.”
Ahmadinejad stated publically that he intends to donate the proceeds to the state welfare agency in order to build 60,000.00 homes for disabled and needy women who are providing support for their families.
The idea to sell Ahmadinejad’s car was conceived in January with the launch of a website that invited purchasers to place bids for the 1977 Peugeot.
The auction was conducted in the southwestern city of Abadan.
Since coming to power, the Iranian President has dubbed himself as the champion of the people and the advocate for the poor and the needy.
Ahmadinejad stated publically that since the 1979 revolution, “Iran is among the few countries in the world where no one goes to bed hungry."
But according to the country’s center for statistics, about 30 million Iranians live at or below the poverty limit.
During a recent public appearance, Iranian factory workers confronted the Iranian President by carrying a banner that read “we are hungry”.
Iran is the world’s fourth largest oil exporter. But the Iranian economy suffers from many ailments. Chief among the country’s economic woes is escalating prices due to endemic inflation and contradictory fiscal policies.
The government and the state controlled companies run by the Revolutionary Guard dominate more that 75% of Iran’s economy. Corruption, high cost of doing business, and inconsistent government policies have hampered the growth of the Iranian private sector.
In real terms, Iran has had little or no per capita income growth since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Although the country’s cleric led government insists otherwise, Iran’s per capita income growth was zero between 1980 and 2005.
Any rise in the country’s per capita income since 2005 is due to higher oil prices.
But the per capita income growth has been negligible nonetheless.
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