Iranian gov't denies gasoline price surge plan

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7 /Trend, D.Khatinoglu/ The Iranian president's office Centre for Innovation and Technology Cooperation released an announcement saying the government never planned to boost gasoline price to 20,000 rials. USD price in Iran's open market is 16,700 rials. Previously the Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani gave a warning about the government's decision to double gasoline and gas price and triple the oil and gas prices. The Iranian government wants to start the second round of the subsidy reform plan which intended to remove subsidies and pay cash to Iranian citizens' bank accounts. The government started the first round of the subsidy reform plan in December 2010, increasing the prices of goods and energy and transferring 45,000 rials monthly to citizens' bank accounts in compensation of price rises. Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the cash subsides will be doubled soon, a statement that has been criticised by experts and some MPs saying this would push up the inflation rate. The official inflation rate in Iran is about 22 per cent. However some experts and MPs say that real inflation rate is more than the officially announced figure. Some MPs also say that the government should indicate the source of money that it wants to use. Member of Parliament Golam-Reza Mesbahi Mogaddam said earlier that the Iranian government has borrowed $15 billion from the Central Bank of Iran and other resources to pay people a cash subsidy. Iran's parliament has more than halved the governmental requested share of revenues from the second phase of its subsidy reform plan, Mehr news agency reported on May 5. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration had asked for $110 billion in income from the programme this year, (Iran's solar year ended on March 19). The Majlis (parliament) Budget Integration Committee approved $44 billion. That's the same level of funding that was approved in the first phase of the programme. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az