Iranian official: Subsidy reform plan improves welfare among 80% of Iranians

TEHRAN,Dec.21(MNA)--Implementing the first phase of the Subsidy Reform Plan has improved general welfare among 80 percent of Iranian families, said Iranian 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. 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 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