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Official: Subsidy reform plan improves welfare among 80% of Iranians

Implementing the first phase of the Subsidy Reform Plan has improved general welfare among 80 percent of Iranian families, said the deputy economy minister as well as the head of the Subsidy Reform Plan headquarters.
Improper management of energy sources, low productivity and expanded smuggling were among the main predicaments facing the country's economy before launching the reform plan, he added, the Mehr news agency reported.
If the gasoline consumption had continued according to the patterns before the reform plan, it would have surged to 119 million liters per day annually, he noted.
The second phase of implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan has envisaged removing subsidies of some three million Iranian families, the Iranian parliament's economic committee speaker said.
Nasser Mousavi told the ILNA news agency that the administration is planning to pay more cash subsidies to the economically vulnerable strata and cut subsidies of the well-off families.
The National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company's managing director, Jalil Salari, said on October 20 that since the enforcement of the subsidy reform plan in the country in December 2010, the consumption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, kerosene, and diesel has cut between 4 and 19 percent.
The subsidy reform plan, launched in December 2010, allows the Iranian government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of five years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts

Energy, wheat consumption decline in Iran after subsidy reform plan

Gasoline, gas oil, furnace oil and wheat consumption in Iran have fallen by 6 percent, 10 percent, 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively, after implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan, the deputy economy minister, Mohammadreza Farzin, stated, the Mehr news agency reported.
Iran plans to exclude wealthy Iranians of receiving subsidies in the near future, Farzin told the ISNA news agency earlier this month.
"We will concentrate in the coming months on removing subsidies of those strata of the society who do not need cash payments according to the law," he added. We are currently working to identify the wealthy people who have been registered by relevant organizations, he added.
The subsidy reform plan, launched in December 2010, allows the Iranian government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of five years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts.
Iran sees inflation at 21.6% by March 2012

Iran's inflation rate for the eighth calendar month of Aban (ended on November 21) stood at 19.8 percent and if the economy does not suffer any external shock, the rate would hit 21.6 percent by the end of the year (March 2012), the deputy economy minister, Mohammadreza Farzin, said.
Speaking to the Mehr news agency, he added that despite some speculations on a surge in Iran's inflation rate by 50-500 percent after implementing the Subsidy Reform Plan, the inflation rate has remained below 25 percent, the Mehr news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Iran governor Mahmoud Bahmani announced on December 11 that the country's inflation growth rate will decline in the coming months.
Bahmani had previously said that the country's inflation rate increased by 0.8 percent to stand at 19.1 percent in the end of the seventh Iranian month of Mehr, according to Press TV.
He put last year's inflation rate at 12.4 percent.
The subsidy reform plan, launched in December 2010, allows the Iranian government to gradually slash subsidies on fuel, electricity, and certain goods over the course of five years, with low-income families being compensated with direct cash handouts.

© Tehran Times 2011

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