Finance Secretary (Persia)

Nation
 Reports To
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 First Holder

The **Secretary of State for Finance** (Persian: **وزیر دارایی**), also known simply as the **Finance Minister**, is a senior cabinet minister within the Persian government and is the head of the powerful Ministry of Finance. The position is considered one of the most prestigious appointments within the Persian government and is normally given to a respected or senior politician of the ruling coalition.

As head of the Ministry of Finance, the finance secretary is responsible for controlling the allocation of government funding, managing the Persian economy, and controlling levels of taxation. The finance secretary is responsible to both the prime minister and to congress, and is expected to inform congress of the actions of the Ministry of Finance through legislative questioning, select committees, and the publication of written statements. As part of their duties, the finance minister delivers an annual budget speech before the National People's Congress to set out the government's spending plans for the following year; such spending plans are typically formulated as a result of negotiations between different departments over allocation of a set fund. Additionally, the budget speech also sets out government plans for taxation, though there is a longstanding bipartisan consensus between all major parties to keep tax levels low and instead fund additional spending through profits from the state owned Aramco oil company and the sovereign National Investment Fund. Unlike many other countries, the Persian central bank is politically controlled by the Ministry of Finance and the finance secretary holds the power to set interest rates, which are often set at artificially low levels to encourage investment and spending. Due to the office's significant influence over the Persian economy, many private companies, politicians, and investors alike frequently conduct extensive lobbying campaigns to influence government policy, which has led to several finance secretaries later being discovered to possess vast unexplained wealth accumulated from their period in office.

Similarly to all government ministers, the secretary of state for finance is appointed by the president at the recommendation of the prime minister, though the president retains the power to reject a recommendation. The incumbent officeholder must either be a sitting member of the National Peoples Congress of the Republic of Persia or a serving member of the armed forces in order to hold office, but is not subject to any term limits for their position. Instead, they serve at the pleasure of the president, who has the power to dismiss the secretary of state for finance at any given point; however, congress can vote to overturn the dismissal with a two thirds majority vote. Similarly, the National People's Congress also has the power to remove the finance secretary from office with a simple majority vote, but the president can veto any such resolution. Like most other cabinet ministers, the secretary of state for finance is bound by departmental responsibility; this means that any failures of the Ministry of Finance are automatically considered to be failures of the incumbent minister, who is consequently expected to offer their resignation to either the president or the prime minister.

Since the office's establishment in April 2018, there have been eight people to hold the position across thirteen ministries. In addition to this, Khalid Al Attiyah briefly served as acting finance secretary for 174 days between November 2035 and May 2036 in his capacity as the financial affairs leader of the Shanghai Pact's intergovernmental Coordination Council, though his acting tenure is sometimes counted as a continuation of his immediately preceding term in office. At six years and one hundred and seventy four days across one permanent term and one acting term, Khalid Al Attiyah's total tenure as finance secretary is the longest on record, whilst Hossein Dehghan was the shortest serving permanent officeholder at just one hundred and twelve days.