No further rise in price of gasoline in coming months: Iran’s Zanganeh

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says rumors about further hike in gasoline price in coming months are not true and fuel price will remain at its current level.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his visit to an exhibition of the achievements of Iran’s offshore engineering companies on Sunday, Zanganeh said such rumors amount to disturbing the public opinion and are open to judicial prosecution.

Iran scrapped subsidized gasoline allowance as of May 26 according to which every Iranian was given a monthly allotment of 60 liters of subsidized fuel.

Head of gas station owners society, Nasser Raeisi-Fard was quoted by Iranian media as saying, “Subsidized gasoline quotas were source of corruption and were misused by certain individuals.”

Under the fuel subsidy program, Iranians driving domestically-manufactured cars could buy as much as 60 liters of subsidized gasoline per month using a smart card.

Zanganeh told reporters that the past quotas that have not been used yet will be valid up to the end of summer, as promised by the Iranian administration.

The bill projecting increase in fuel prices was approved by the Iranian parliament (Majlis) in February with Iranian lawmakers voting in favor of fuel price hike for the next fiscal year starting on March 21, 2015.

According to the legislators’ approval, the administration of President Hassan Rouhani was authorized to raise subsidized regular gasoline price from 70,000 rials (25 cents) per liter to 35 cents.