TEHRAN (MNA) – Nation’s treasury pays $15b subsidy on gasoline per year, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) said in Sari, northern Mazandaran Province, Friday.

“Still, the fiscal year has witnessed a 12 percent increase in demand and this could easily entail $6b allocation to fuel financing for rest of the (Iranian calendar) year (ends March 20, 2007),” added Seyyed Hassan Zia-Kashani.

The country on the average produces 40 million liters of gasoline and imports 30 million annually to meet the increasing domestic demand, he explained.

“In the last quarter of the previous year, we had to import gas oil due to our failure in economizing whereas we were exporter of the fuel in the first three quarters,” regretted the official, warning the trend could hit the country with another Rls.20b ($2.3m) in subsidy this year.

Conservation, resorting to alternative types of energies, and preventing fuel smuggling are some of the ways to curb the subsidies, he maintained.