Qa'im Panah: The 80,000-toman gasoline plan is not on the government's agenda at all
Long-term idea to combat fuel smuggling, not an immediate policy, says the president’s executive deputy
IRNA reports that Mohammad Jafar Qa'im Panah said the 80,000-toman gasoline plan is not on the government's agenda. He framed the idea as a long-term measure to curb fuel smuggling through energy-subsidy reform, not an immediate policy, and noted the need to balance energy prices with wages amid large-scale smuggling.
Tehran — IRNA — Mohammad Jafar Qa'im Panah, the president’s executive deputy, said that a plan to raise gasoline to 80,000 tomans is not on the government’s agenda in any way. He added that balancing fuel prices would require balancing wages and salaries, noting that you cannot price fuel at international or regional levels while not adjusting people’s incomes. Qa'im Panah stressed that his remarks yesterday during a visit to the Anti-Smuggling Coordination Headquarters were about a long‑term approach to curb fuel smuggling, not a current policy.
He argued that if fuel prices are to be balanced in the long run, the price of energy carriers must be aligned with other economic factors, and that the idea was presented as a measure to address smuggling rather than an immediate change. He warned that the gap between Iran’s fuel prices and those of neighboring countries is a key vulnerability fueling illicit trade, and that simply raising prices now would not be the solution. The official also pointed out that daily smuggling is substantial — reported as around 30 million liters — and that substantial subsidies flow to neighboring countries, with a need to identify corruption bottlenecks in order to reform subsidy distribution. Qa'im Panah reiterated that reforming energy subsidies could be a tool to combat smuggling, but emphasized that there is no plan to raise fuel prices immediately and that any long-term approach should ensure subsidies are more equitably distributed to reflect actual consumption.