Hojjatollah Ghanimifard talking to PIN added 30 million liters of gasoline would be imported per day until early August.

He said if the country was to import gasoline as much as it did before the enforcement of rationing law, 4.5 billion dollars plus the already allocated 2.5 billion dollar budget would be needed in the current year (to end March 20, 2008).

“The impact of the decrease in Iran’s gasoline imports is not felt in one month as the rationing firstly needs to show how it plays the role in reducing Iran’s gasoline imports,” noted the official.

On June 27, Iran, one of the world’s largest oil producers, started rationing petrol nationwide and the Petroleum Ministry has allocated each private car 100 liters per month at 0.108 dollars per liter for normal and 0.151 dollars for super petrol.

The quota for governmental cars has been put at 300 liters per month and for taxis at 800.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the gasoline rationing a big decision.

He made the statement in a gathering of executive officials and said the plan’s success depended on national will.

Ahmadinejad urged the critics to prefer national interests to other issues.

The president underlined that the executive officials needed to make every endeavor to prevent the plan from putting people under pressure.

Minister of Petroleum Seyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh here Tuesday said the current gasoline ration would meet 85 percent of people’s need.

Vaziri-Hamaneh said the remaining 15 percent of the public need would be addressed within the next two months, during which the necessary information would be collected.

Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, for his part, expressed his satisfaction with the enforcement of gasoline rationing plan, terming it as a major measure that had been so far successful.

People had been suffering for heavy traffic for years, said the Legislative head, adding the problem would be solved if the petrol rationing project worked.

Rapporteur of the Energy Committee of Majlis here Tuesday said the government would amend the gasoline rationing and provide the motorists and motorcyclists with the commodity according to their real needs within the next two months.

Seyed Emad Hosseini told PIN that Majlis insisted on the supply of surplus gasoline and the cabinet needed to provide it.

Critics argue that the government must also add, as previously scheduled, additional quotas at higher rates for people who need their cars for their jobs and at the same time increase public transportation.

The rapporteur added the advantages of rationing outnumbered its problems, referring to reduction of air pollution, traffic, and gasoline consumption as the main benefits of the newly enforced law.

Although Iran is a leading OPEC member and the world’s fourth biggest oil producer with a daily oil production of 4.2 million barrels, the Islamic state still spends 5-8 billion dollars annually on petrol imports due to a lack of refineries and a preference for oil export.

Within the new plan, petrol is only supplied through the smart card or petrol coupon, an initiative by Ahmadinejad to stop lavish fuel consumption – 73 million liters daily – by over seven million cars nationwide.