Iran oil minister: No plan to increase gasoline price this year

TEHRAN,July 3(MNA) - Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi announced that gasoline prices will not be increased in the domestic market in the current calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013. “No decision has so far been taken to increase fuel prices,” he said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in May that the price may reach maximum to 10,000 rials by the end of the fifth five-year development plan in 2015. “…[they] say gasoline price will reach 20,000 rials. These are basically false. They want to disturb the market. By the end of the plan, the gasoline price may reach half of the said price,” he said. Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has said that the government was seeking to triple petrol prices and to double the cost of natural gas as part of the next stage of the plan to reduce spending on energy subsidies. Currently gasoline is sold at two prices: a 50-liter monthly allowance at 4000 rials (33 cents) per liter, and any amount above that at 7000 rials (57 cents) per liter. MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moqaddam, who is the chairman of the Majlis Economic Reform Committee, told the Mehr News Agency that since the subsidy reform plan must be implemented over a five-year period, 10,000 rials per liter is the best price for gasoline, which is now sold at 7000 rials per liter. He also suggested that the monthly allowance price of 4000 rials per liter be increased to 7000 rials per liter. The first stage of the subsidy reform plan, which is mainly focused on cutting fuel subsidies, started in December 2010.