Above-quota fuel price raised to $0.04 per liter

Taxi, delivery, carpool drivers protest: 'We can't take it anymore'

Food prices surge 128%; rial hits record low

Iran will raise gasoline prices starting Oct. 8 (local time) as the country's economic hardship deepens. Iranians refuel at a gas station in Tehran. [EPA]
Iran will raise gasoline prices starting Oct. 8 (local time) as the country's economic hardship deepens. Iranians refuel at a gas station in Tehran. [EPA]

Truck and taxi drivers in Iran have launched protests and strikes over a government fuel price hike, as the country's economic crisis deepens under the weight of war and US sanctions. Soaring food prices and a collapsing rial are adding to the strain on ordinary Iranians.

According to Yonhap and the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian government announced Monday that it would double the price of gasoline for vehicles exceeding their subsidized fuel quota, raising it to about $0.04 per liter.

The government had already been cutting subsidized fuel quotas over several years, and the latest price increase is part of its efforts to cope with the economic fallout from the war and US sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the increase is a heavy burden for most Iranians, whose monthly income barely exceeds $100. According to the Iranian Truck and Driver Union, 120 taxi drivers in Kerman Province in eastern Iran protested Monday against the reduction in subsidized fuel quotas following the price hike.

Drivers for Snapp — an Iranian ride-hailing and delivery service often compared to Uber — also went on strike this week in cities across the country. Snapp is one of Iran's largest private employers, with about 3 million drivers.

Dozens of Snapp drivers gathered Monday outside the governor's office in Arak, an industrial hub in western Iran, pleading that they could "no longer make a living." On the same day, Snapp drivers staged a vehicle convoy protest along a main thoroughfare in Semnan, a city east of Tehran.

Truck drivers at Bandar Abbas port on the Strait of Hormuz, which handles the bulk of Iran's container traffic, warned they could also strike. In a statement posted by the truck and driver union, they said the fuel cost increase meant "drivers and their families must pay out of their own pockets" and declared, "We can no longer endure this pressure."

Some gas stations ran dry as drivers rushed to fill up before the price increase took effect, and some motorists were left stranded on the road.

Iranian transport workers say they are now facing fuel shortages they never experienced even during the heaviest fighting in the early stages of the war with the United States.

Jalal Musavi, vice chairman of the National Iranian Truck Drivers Association, told the state-run Iranian Labour News Agency that "drivers were busy transporting goods even under missile strikes during the war and never stopped the flow of cargo for a single hour," adding, "But today, drivers have to stand in long lines just to get fuel."

Meanwhile, the broader Iranian economy is reeling from surging food prices and a collapsing currency. Food prices jumped 128 percent year-on-year in August. The rial has also plummeted amid intensifying US economic pressure, hitting a record low of more than 2.3 million rials to the dollar on Thursday.


eyre@heraldcorp.com