Iran ranks higher than China on energy subsidies
By Trend
Iran ranks higher than China in terms of the volume of energy consumption and the country while spends considerable amount of its budget on fuel subsides, said the managing director of Iran Fuel Conservation Company Mohsen Delaviz, Trend reports citing IRNA.
"Iran with its 80 million population annually spends $45 billion for energy subsides, while this figure stands at $38 billion in China with population of 1.5 billion," he said.
Delaviz noted that Iran's fuel consumption volume is far more than the global standards. He believes that the high energy consumption makes it necessary to carry out reforms in Iran and all organizations should stick to the consumption rules.
"The country's budget has no capacity to support this amount of energy subsidies. Iran accounts for 15 percent of energy subsides in the world and the annual energy subsides are equal to 10 percent of the country's GDP," he said.
The official noted that paying heavy subsides would hinder the economic development, adding that this issue should be reconsidered.
Further, he noted that the Iranian government and parliament have no plan to raise the fuel price in the next Iranian year (starting on March 21, 2019).
"The pricing is the most important way to control consumption, however it should be noted that the per capita income of Iranian people is low. Therefore, this issue should be thoroughly studied," said Delaviz.
He went on to add that Iran's annual energy waste is equal to 445 million barrels of crude oil, while the energy consumption in domestic sector and household is equal to 396 million barrels. "The energy consumption in industrial sector is equal to 331 million barrels of crude oil and in transportation it is equal to 319 million barrels."
Delaviz said that the main reason for high fuel consumption is the old cars that are below the standard levels.
With spending $45.1 billion on fossil energy consumption subsidies in 2017, Iran ranked first globally, the International Energy Agency reported.
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