A key committee of Iran’s parliament has approved a motion to reform the country’s national currency by removing four zeros from the rial and reviving an old currency subdivision known as the qiran, a senior lawmaker said on Sunday.
Shamseddin Hosseini, head of the parliament’s economic committee, said the panel had voted in favor of the general outlines of the plan, which aims to simplify financial transactions and bring Iran’s currency structure in line with international standards.
The proposal would establish a new rial, valued at 10,000 of the current rials, and subdivided into 100 qirans. The qiran was a former unit of currency used in Iran prior to the adoption of the rial.
Hosseini said the motion is in line with a government bill passed in 2016, which had envisaged a shift to a new currency called the toman, equivalent to 10 rials. However, that plan was shelved in 2023 when parliament passed a broader law redefining the Central Bank of Iran’s (CBI) governance framework.
Under the previous plan, the CBI had already begun preparing for the redenomination by issuing banknotes with faded zeros to familiarize the public with the anticipated changes.
Iran’s current administration announced earlier this year that it would revisit the currency reform initiative as part of broader economic restructuring efforts, amid persistent inflation and currency devaluation.
Unlike the 2016 plan, the new parliamentary motion retains the rial as the national currency, while reintroducing the qiran as its subdivision, Hosseini said. He did not specify when the motion would be brought to a vote in the parliament’s main chamber.