Sporadic protests erupted in cities across Iran, state news agency IRNA said yesterday, a day after the government announced a surprise decision to ration gasoline and hike its price.
The demonstrations on Friday night were “severe” in Sirjan in central Iran as “people attacked a fuel storage warehouse in the city and tried to set fire to it,” the news agency reported.
However, police intervened to prevent them.
“Scattered” protests also broke out in other cities including Mashhad, Birjand, Ahvaz, Gachsaran, Abadan, Khoramshahr, Mahshahr, Shiraz and Bandar Abbas, IRNA said.
They were mostly limited to blocking traffic and were over by midnight, it added.
Iran imposed gasoline rationing and raised pump prices by at least 50 percent on Friday, saying the move was aimed at helping citizens in need with cash handouts.
The measure was expected to bring in 300 trillion rials (US$7.14 billion) per year, Iranian Planning and Budget Organization head Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said on state television.
About 60 million Iranians in need would get payments ranging from 550,000 rials for couples to slightly more than 2 million rials for families with five members or more, he added.
Under the scheme, drivers with fuel cards would pay 15,000 rials a liter for the first 60 liters of gasoline bought each month, with each additional liter costing them 30,000 rials.
Fuel cards were first introduced in 2007 with a view toward reforming the subsidies system and curbing large-scale smuggling.
Iran’s economy has been battered since May last year when US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear agreement and reimposed crippling sanctions.
The rial has plummeted in value against the US dollar, inflation is now running at more than 40 percent and the IMF projects that the troubled economy will contract by 9 percent this year and stagnate in 2020.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that currently “75 percent of the country are under pressure” and the extra revenue will only go to them, not the treasury.
Rouhani had tried to hike fuel prices in December but was blocked by parliament in the wake of protests that rocked Iran for days.
The speaker at the time ruled out the move as unpopular and said it was “not in the interests of the country.”
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