TEHRAN May 27(Shana)--A senior government official has said that the recent rise in gasoline prices in Iran was in accordance with the law and the government was obliged by the subsidies reform plan to raise the prices.

Head of Management and Planning Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said in a televised speech on Tuesday that inflation is not favored by the current administration in Iran and the government is doing its best to reduce the costs of living in the country, but "raising gasoline prices was a legal duty on the administration which should have been accomplished accordingly."

He said the subsidies reform plan has tasked the government to regulate gasoline prices up to 90% of the FOB prices in the Persian Gulf by the end of the current calendar year to March 20.

The official also added that the country will earn more than 30,000 billion Iranian rials by unifying gasoline prices which will be distributed among the people according to the same law.

He said one of the government's concerns regarding gasoline prices is to raise it so high to curb consumption and therefore import of the commodity which is not easy for the country given the western sanctions imposed on it.

The Iranian government has scrapped subsidized gasoline rationing system to unify the petrol and gasoil prices.

�As of Tuesday midnight, each liter of regular gasoline will sell at IRR 10,000 and each liter of premium gasoline at IRR 12,000,� spokesman for National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) said.

Each dollar is traded for nearly IRR 29,000 officially and for around IRR 33,000 on open market.

Davoud Arab-Ali said gasoil will also sell at IRR 3,000 a liter in Iran, adding that kerosene will sell at IRR 1,500 a liter and liquefied gas at IRR 2,300 per kilogram.

Jet fuel price will soar to IRR 6,000 a liter while compressed natural gas (CNG) will be charged at IRR 4,000 per cubic meter.
Arab-Ali said the quota remaining in smart cards of car owners would be valid until September.

By SHANA