Tehran, Iran, May 3
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran's average gasoline consumption after the implementation of the second phase of subsidy reform plans was around 53-55 million liters.
Free market gasoline accounted for just 20 percent of Iran's total consumption, Iran's Eghtesad Online news website reported on April 30.
Iranian government implemented the second phase of subsidy report plan, aimed to realize the prices by cutting subsides, on April 25. The fist phase of the plan was implemented in December 2010.
Iranian government supplies gasoline in two terms, limited semi-subsidized gasoline which is charged to citizens' fuel cards and free market priced gasoline.
National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) announced on April 24 that as of midnight (April 25) semi-subsidized gasoline price increased from 4,000 rials to 7,000 rials, while the free market price increased from 7,000 rials to 10,000 rials.
Each USD is sold at 32,200 rials in Iran's free market.
According to the government, Iranians who still have some semi-subsidized gasoline quota in their cards can use their stored allowance with the previous price (4,000 rials) until further notice.
Some 2 billion liters of semi-subsidized gasoline (with the price of 4,000 rials per liter) is stored in the mentioned cards.
The remained semi-subsidized gasoline (with the price of 4,000 rials per liter) accounted for 50-60 percent of the total consumption during the last several days, the report said.
Iranians with cars will receive a monthly allowance of 60 liters with the semi-subsidized price and have to pay the free market price for larger volumes.
Iran's gasoline consumption level during last fiscal year, ended on March 20, reached to 27 billion liters - or 67 million liters per day-, indicates a 3.2 billion increase year-to-year.
A month before implementation of the second phase of subsidy report plan, Iran's daily gasoline consumption soared to 94 million liters per day due to 14-day new year holidays and storing the gasoline by people who tried to buy the cheap fuel as much as possible before increasing the prices.