Yesterday the government submitted a bill to the Parliament demanding 3.5 billion dollars for importing gasoline. The Parliament had earlier given the green light for ratifying the bill. However, when the Parliament was in the process of deciding about the budget it said it would not okay more funds for importing fuel this year (starting March 21, 2006) after it first authorized the government to spend 2.5 billion dollars for importing gasoline and improving the public transportation system.

This earlier promise by Parliament created some hopes in the minds of those who have been panicking over the waste of national wealth in recent years. Following the decision the Oil Ministry announced it would ration gasoline in the next six months of the year. However, government has failed to ration gasoline so far, and the Parliament is also reneging on its earlier promise of not allocating more funds for the purpose.

The heavily-subsidized gasoline is a nuisance to our economy; it has also caused massive air pollutions and traffic congestions in big cities, health problems and fuel smuggling, etc.

All people remember well that last year the air pollution brought the metropolitan city of Tehran to a standstill and the schools were forced to be closed for some days. Even some argue that about 10 million liters of petrol are smuggled out of the country.

The petrol consumption has been increasing at a 10.1 percent pace. For example, in the first five months of last year the average consumption stood at about 63.1 million liters per day but it has gone up to 73.1 million liters in the current year. The importation has also risen 42 percent. 29.1 million liters of gasoline is imported into the country on a daily basis which is 8.6 million liters more than last year.

Logically, nobody should be against the importation of gasoline if the prices were real. But what is painful is that such a policy has led to extravagant consumption. It is enough to say that Oil Ministry announced yesterday that the consumption has jumped to about 1.09 billion liters in the last 14 days.

Those sitting and former lawmakers or government officials, whether reformist or conservative, who have been halting decisions to free up the petrol prices are in fact responsible for the current situation. Through their inept decisions they have been funneling billions of dollars into the economies of other countries.

The opponents have been warning of increasing inflations if the subsidy ends. But these officials should realize that this trend cannot continue for ever. Those MPs who blocked the annual petrol price increases must have realized by now that their decisions could not tame soaring prices of other commodities.

However, we hope it would be the last time that the Parliament would be releasing funds from the Foreign Exchange Fund for subsidization of gasoline. We are waiting to see that the words of Parliament are translated into reality.