Price of free-market gasoline in Iran tripled
Iran’s National Oil Products Distribution Company announced on the morning of November 15 an increase in the price of free-market gasoline in the country.
According to the announcement by the National Oil Products Distribution Company, the price of regular rationed gasoline will be 1,500 tomans per liter and the price of regular non-rationed gasoline will be 3,000 tomans per liter. Additionally, the price of super gasoline has been set at 3,500 tomans per liter.
The National Oil Products Distribution Company of Iran says that based on a resolution by the Supreme Coordination Council of Economic Policymaking of the Heads of Branches, gasoline has been rationed for all gasoline-powered vehicles.
Previously, non-rationed gasoline was 1,000 tomans per liter.
According to this statement, “the monthly gasoline ration for private passenger cars will be 60 liters and for dual-fuel vehicles 30 liters. The monthly fuel ration for motorcycles has been set at 25 liters.”
Iranian government officials say that 90 million liters of gasoline are consumed daily in the country.
Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, head of the Planning and Budget Organization, said on Friday morning regarding the gasoline price increase: “In recent years, with the increasing consumption of gasoline, experts have stated that if gasoline is rationed and its price is also adjusted, it can help control consumption, but the government has only made this price adjustment twice in the past six years.”
He said that the revenues from the gasoline price increase have mostly been used to pay families in need covered by the Imam Khomeini Committee and Welfare Organization.
Previously, Iranian officials had announced that rationing and price adjustment of gasoline were inevitable.
In this regard, Iran’s oil minister had said in December 2018 that in terms of fuel, there is “no other way” besides rationing and price increases, and this price increase would be within the people’s capacity to bear.
In the proposed budget for 2018, the Rouhani government intended to increase the price of energy carriers, which again failed to pass in parliament due to concerns about inflation increase.
Recently, Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization announced the existence of 890 trillion tomans in visible and hidden subsidies in the country, saying that gasoline subsidies in 2019 are expected to exceed 123 trillion tomans.
The sharp decline in Iran’s oil revenues due to American sanctions and the collapse of exports has confronted President Hassan Rouhani’s government with difficulties.
Oil revenues account for 40 percent of the country’s budget, and without it the government is forced to cut expenses, including subsidies.
Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, last year, referring to the decline in Iran’s oil sales due to American sanctions, had said that the country’s revenues have decreased proportionally.
Denial of “reports about gas stations being set on fire”
Meanwhile, an informed official at Iran’s Interior Ministry on Friday morning denied reports about “gatherings or setting fire to several gas stations in some cities.”
According to ISNA, this Interior Ministry official said, “Since the announcement of the new gasoline rationing, no such incidents have been reported.”
The official added: “The news circulating in cyberspace about setting fire to fuel stations in Isfahan, East Azerbaijan, Khuzestan and other parts of the country is not true, and this news is being spread by some foreign accounts on Twitter and in cyberspace, and the spread of this news is aimed at inciting people and creating unrest in the country.”
It is worth noting that images have been circulated on social media regarding a fire at a gas station, but news agency ISNA says these images are old.
On July 26, 2007, gasoline rationing caused people to rush to gas stations.
The anger of some people at the sudden announcement of gasoline rationing led to several gas stations being set on fire in Tehran and Islamshahr and a number of other major Iranian cities.
Source: Radio Farda
