TEHRAN (Thomson Financial) - Iran will launch the first phase of a long-awaited plan to ration petrol on Thursday - a move that is expected to have a major impact on its economy, officials said.

The plan, which aims to reduce colossal state petrol subsidies, is being implemented gradually and Thursday's change will only affect vehicles used by government officials, with private cars being targeted later.

'The start of (the) first phase of petrol rationing is only for the government vehicles and will begin from midnight on Wednesday,' the head of government special plans, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

'The maximum quota for each government car at the start of the programme is 10 litres per day,' he added.

This means that drivers of government cars -- mostly employees of ministries and state organisations -- will be able to buy a maximum of 10 litres of petrol at the regular price of 1,000 rials (10 US cents) per litre.

Mehrabian did not give details for purchases in excess of this limit but the rationing law passed by parliament in March dictates that these would be charged at a much higher price.

The real significance of the rationing law will only be realised when it is enforced for private cars, forcing Iranians to pay a higher price for a commodity that now costs less than a comparable amount of mineral water.

Cheap pump prices have encouraged such consumption that the OPEC number two oil producer ironically has to spend billions of dollars each year on importing refined oil from abroad.

Officials have said in the last Iranian year to March, Iran had to import 5.0 bln usd worth of gasoline and if the rationing is not implemented this year Iran would have to import 9.5 bln usd worth of petrol.

There has been considerable confusion about the implementation of the rationing plan, with some officials even suggesting it could be scrapped entirely.

Iran has already raised pump prices by 25 pct and forced consumers to use smart cards to keep track of their petrol purchases. However problems in distributing the cards have caused delays in implementing the rest of the plan.

'Since there are rumours going around about the next phase of petrol rationing, it should be noted that whatever the government information centre announces is valid,' said Mehrabian.




(sVy) Quelle: hemscott.com