TEHRAN -- A lawmaker from Neishabour, Khorasan Province, Hossein Ansari-Rad said here on Sunday that the hike in gasoline price in the next Iranian year of 1382 (to start March 21) would have an impact on prices of other goods and services.

Ansari-Rad told IRNA that the price rise would not help solve such problems as traffic jam, rather it would encourage soaring prices of goods, including cars.

Government recently proposed a 30 percent rise in price of gasoline, setting the price at Rls.650 from Rls.500 a liter.

Some experts believe the move will be inflationary, unjust to the vulnerable strata and run counter to the provisions Third Five-Year Economic Development Plan's (2000-2005) law. Member of the Energy Commission at Majlis Mohammad Rashidian said on Sunday that, "based on the Third Five-Year Economic Development Plan, the prices for basic commodities and energy sources should increase only by 10 percent; a 30 percent increase in price of gasoline is against the law."

An MP from Mahneshan (Zanjan Province) Reza Abdollahi in an exclusive interview with IRNA here on Sunday termed the move as 'unjustifiable', saying the only way to cut the consumption is discarding the aging and dilapidated cars, which gulp up huge amounts of fuel and generating culture of better exploitation of public transportation services.

Rising demand for gasoline has become an issue of heated debate, prompting the government to import the commodity to meet spiraling demand.

Majlis in its open session on Sunday welcomed government's request to annex a note to Article 60 of the Third Five-Year Economic Development Plan's law on allocation of a fund of Rls.1,700 billion out of oil exports revenues for gasoline imports in the final quarter of the current Iranian year to make up the shortage in the last days of this year and early days of next Iranian year.

Soaring demand for fuel, offered at cheap prices on the market, has prompted related officials to reconsider transportation policies, which has encouraged rising imports to meet domestic shortage.

Iran will have to spend Rls.112 billion in the next two decades on gasoline imports to offset domestic shortage of 500 billion liters resulting from over 15 million cars on the streets.

An energy research expert at the Organization for Optimal Consumption of Energy Mohammad Mamaqani recently said that the country had to import about six million liters of gasoline a day to meet energy demand for over four million cars plying on the streets at the start of current Iranian year of 1381 (started March 21).

Gasoline consumption per car in Iran averages 10.75 liters a day, which is over four and three times those in France and Britain respectively.