Iran denies claims over gas price treble

Tehran has dismissed charges it is raising the price of gasoline Iran’s government has Monday denied that it would treble the price of gasoline as part of subsidy reforms, which have been commended by the IMF, but have caused anger at home among a population struggling under Western trade sanctions.
In a statement, reported by the the national Iranian news agency, Fars, the office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said talk of a threefold price increase  broadcast on May 4 by Ali Larijani, the speaker of parliament - was “entirely false”.
Speaker Ali Larijani had said the government was looking to triple petrol prices and to double the cost of natural gas as part of a further stage of efforts to reduce spending on subsidies while trying to target relief at the poorest Iranians.
 In the statement, Ahmadinejad’s office said: “Comments published saying the government has decided to sell gasoline at 2000 toman per litre are entirely false.”
That price, equivalent to 20,000 rials, compares to the 7000 rials - roughly 57 US cents at the official rate - which Iranians now pay for petrol once they use up a 50-litre monthly allowance to purchase fuel at 4000 rials.
The presidency said: “The government has never sought such figures in any of its programmes and it has and will continue to put all necessary information directly to the people.”
The government implemented the first-stage of its Targeted Subsidies Plan towards the end of 2010 in an attempt to wean the country off food and fuel subsidies. At the time, Ahmadinejad called it the “biggest economic plan of the past 50 years”.
On May 5, a parliamentary committee rejected its plans for the second stage of subsidy reform.
Critics have accused Ahmadinejad of pushing through a programme of wasteful public spending that has caused soaring inflation and of using the reforms for his own political gain.