Qaimpanah: Plan for 80,000-toman gasoline price is not on the government's agenda
The presidential deputy for executive affairs says any move to raise fuel prices would depend on wage adjustments and a long-term anti-smuggling strategy.
IRNA quotes Mohammad Jafar Qa'impanah saying the 80,000-toman gasoline plan is not on the government's agenda. He frames the issue as a long-term anti-smuggling strategy that links subsidy reform to fair wages, noting daily fuel smuggling around 30 million liters and the need to move subsidies toward international benchmarks rather than raise prices immediately.
Tehran — IRNA — Mohammad Jafar Qaimpanah, the president’s deputy for executive affairs, stressed that the proposal to raise gasoline prices to 80,000 tomans is not on the government’s agenda. He added that balancing fuel prices would require balancing wages and salaries for workers, retirees and others, and that the previous day’s remarks were presented as a long-term idea to combat fuel smuggling rather than an immediate policy.
He explained that in the long run, if fuel prices are to be balanced, the state would also need to adjust wages; pricing fuels at international or regional levels without such wage adjustments cannot be a current measure. Qa’impanah noted that at a visit to the Anti-Smuggling and Currency Center, questions about what to do were addressed with the answer that, in the long term, addressing smuggling hinges on aligning energy-carrier subsidies with fair distribution. He pointed out a sizable gap between domestic fuel prices and those in neighboring countries as a key driver of smuggling and emphasized that the government is not planning to raise prices now, but is considering ways to target subsidies more fairly and to eventually move them toward international benchmarks with compensations for citizens.
The official described the issue as a matter of justice: affluent individuals with multiple houses and cars benefit more from subsidies than those with fewer resources, which he said is unfair. He reiterated that the plan to balance energy prices is not a current government agenda item, but an idea to highlight corruption chokepoints and the need for long-term reform.
Source: IRNA