Tehran, Iran, June 1
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iranian members of parliament have summoned the country's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh to appear before the legislative body and answer questions regarding "ambiguity and lack of transparency" over the price of gasoline.
MP Jalil Jafari, who is member to the Parliament's Energy Commission, said the move comes after gasoline prices jumped by 40 percent in recent days, Fars news agency reported June 1.
He said the oil minister or his deputies are to attend an Energy Commission session to clarify the reasons behind the price jump.
Iran stopped allocating 60 liters of gasoline a month for private cars, saying that gasoline was eliminated entirely from its subsidized energy basket.
The limited subsidized gasoline price was 22 cents. There is about 2.1 billion liters of unused subsidized gasoline, while Oil Ministry warned that quota cards would expire on September 22.
Currently a liter of gasoline is sold at about 30 cents, while the premium gasoline price increased by 3 cents to 36.3 cents. The gasoline price in Iran is still less than regional prices.
Iran started elimination of energy subsides gradually in 2010, when the price of a liter of gasoline was ten times less than it is now.
Edited by CN