Iran Cuts Consumer Gasoline Quota As Possible Move To Raise Prices
Iran has reduced 100 liters of monthly gasoline quota in personal fuel cards from 250 liters to 150 liters, a deputy oil minister has announced.
Iran has reduced 100 liters of monthly gasoline quota in personal fuel cards from 250 liters to 150 liters, a deputy oil minister has announced.
On the sidelines of a ceremony for a national project to export liquefied gas via sea on Tuesday, the head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Jalil Salari, said that the quota of 250 liters was "a very high number" considering that fact that most Iranians do not consume that much petrol per month.
All Iranians who own a car have a 60-liter quota of gasoline at the heavily subsidized rate of about five US cents a liter, but were also allowed to buy 250 liters more at about 10 cents, which is again heavily subsidized, at about 37 cents a US gallon.
According to Jalili the new quota system will be implemented throughout the country soon.
Some people in social media have described the move as a prelude by the administration of Ebrahim Raisi to increase the price of gasoline, despite repeated announcements by the government that the price of gasoline would not increase in the current Iranian year, which started on March 21. Such a plan had been earlier piloted in Sistan and Baluchistan province, leading to a whopping rise of gasoline prices to about 150,000 rials – or about 50 cent a liter – in the black market.
While conservative camp thought the disclosure would discredit the ‘Reformist’ government, the details of the case have affected the reputation of many of its figureheads, including clerics.
In a belated report on the case, IRGC-linked Fars news agency tried to cover up the corruption case at Mobarakeh Steel Company (MSC), claiming that a major part of the figure involved is about the difference in the price of steel at different times. The report further claimed that Iran International and BBC Persian have been putting gasoline on the fire to disturb the Iranian public's mind.
Moderate news website Rouydad24 observed in a report that hardliners at the Iranian parliament initially launched the investigation and published the results to discredit the reformists.
Rouydad24 said in the report that "The hardliners in parliament who disclosed the corruption case never thought that anyone would read a 300-page report to find out about the damning details. They thought people would only listen to their rhetoric about the case."
But social media activists published a ten-page document including the names of tens of Iranian hardliners and individuals and organizations linked to them who had received hefty sums from the Steel Plant. These included many media outlets, such as news agencies, newspapers, websites and even the state television that operates under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Reports also indicate that several social media influencers were also paid possibly to turn a blind eye to the illegal payments by the MSP. Saba Azarpeik, a whistle blower on social media later said that she was offered large sums of money to stop writing about the case.
When the disclosure backfired, it was revealed that many Friday prayer imams were paid by the steel plant. None was seen to refute the reports. Also, newspapers such as the IRGC-linked Javan and Khamenei-linked Kayhan did not try to deny having received money from the MSC. Those who issued denials in the reform camp included a newspaper publisher who said he had received hundreds of billions of rials (tens of thousands of dollars) for writing only three articles about the steel plant.
According to Rouydad24, even some of the lawmakers involved in the investigation were themselves implicated in the corruption case.
The Majles (parliament) that had initially ordered, conducted and published the results of the investigation tried to distance itself from the matter and sent the case to the Judiciary for further investigation.
Iran's Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said subsequently that a special court and a special prosecutor have been tasked to launch an investigation into the case. However, no further action seems to have been taken, at least in public, to address the concerns, other than President Ebrahim Raisi's order to fire the MSC managers who violated the law.
To explain the magnitude of the money involved in the case, 3.5 billion dollars, some Iranian social media users reminded that Elon Musk's investment on the Spex project this year was $2 billion.A study conducted by social media researcher Mohammad Rahbari said some 17,000 tweets in Persian were posted by Iranians on the MSC corruption case in less than one week, adding that half of "liked" posts were those that criticized the government and reiterated that Iran was plagued by systematic corruption.
