Mohammadreza Aref, speaking at the general assembly meeting of the Academy of Sciences on Friday (February 28), highlighted imbalances as challenges faced over the past decades.

He emphasized that the strategy of the 14th government significantly differs from previous administrations, stressing that shortages and imbalances must be distributed equitably across the country. He questioned, "Can we avoid power outages in Tehran while cutting off electricity needed by people in other cities? Or should power cuts be imposed on industry and agriculture while other sectors remain unaffected by these imbalances?"

He added that the government’s plan includes the construction of 30,000 megawatts of solar energy, with promising initial steps already taken. It is projected that 6,000 megawatts of solar energy will be operational by next summer.

The First Vice President also noted that the modernization and reconstruction of power plants are among the government’s measures to increase the country’s electricity capacity. He stated that, according to the 14th government’s plan, 5,000 megawatts will be added to the national grid from this source.

Aref mentioned that the inflation rate has shown a declining trend from September to late December. Despite the industrial sector experiencing an average of three hours of power outages daily, resulting in a loss of 300 trillion tomans, the economic growth rate stands at 2.2% without oil and 4% with oil. He described this as an acceptable economic growth rate given the existing challenges.

Referring to the imbalance in the gasoline sector, he emphasized that, according to the law, daily gasoline consumption should be 100 million liters, but at times during the year, it has reached 131 million liters per day.