Gasoline is sold for 1,000 rials (11 cents) per liter now.

Parliamentarians on Saturday approved the allocation of 30 trillion rials for importing gasoline and diesel in the fiscal year March 2008-09.
Iran, which holds the second largest oil and gas reserves, lacks adequate refining capacity and the government has to spend billions on importing gasoline which is highly subsidized in the country. Gasoline is currently sold for 1,000 rials (11 cents) per liter.
As per the Majlis ratification of parts of the budget bill for fiscal year 2008-09, the Oil Ministry is authorized to spend up to 30 trillion rials of oil revenues on imports of the fuel, majlis.ir reported.
Subsidies allocated for gasoline and diesel will not increase.
Meanwhile, the parliament authorized the government to decide on price and distribution of gasoline in the next Iranian year (starting March 20).
The administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implemented a gasoline rationing plan in late June to cut lavish gasoline consumption.
Also, Majlis deputies approved state revenues from various sources to be over 939 trillion rials. General state revenues will be 863 trillion rials.
Over 75 trillion rials are considered as revenues of ministries and state institutions.
The parliament began reviewing next year’s budget on February 12. The president submitted the 2,792-trillion-rial bill, the third to be presented by Ahmadinejad since assuming office in August 2005, on January 7.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jafari speaking at the 250th meeting of the Islamic Development Bank in Tehran on Saturday.

Foreign investment reached $10.7 billion in the first nine months of the current Iranian year to March 2008, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance said Saturday.
Speaking at the 250th meeting of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Tehran, Davoud Danesh-Jafari stated that implementation of 80 projects by foreign investors was approved during the nine months showing an increase of 138 percent compared to the same period last year.
Over 101.8-billion-rial worth of shares of state companies were ceded to the private sector during March 21, 2005-November 21, 2007, which is three and a half times more than the amount recorded in the past 15 years. Iran is pursuing large-scale privatization in key economic areas in line with Article 44 of the Constitution, according to Iran Daily’s reporter.
Despite the US pressure, Iran has achieved a sustainable growth rate and the national economy expects a bright future.
He further called IDB the powerful arm of the Islamic world, assisting the development in Islamic countries. “Some people in Muslim countries live below the poverty line and earn less than a dollar per day.“
Referring to the bank’s initiative to set up a $10 billion development fund to alleviate poverty in Islamic states in 2005, Danesh-Jafari said Iran has donated $100 million to the ’solidarity fund’.
Speaking at the same gathering, governor of the Central Bank of Iran suggested the bank draw up a plan to use financial resources of Islamic nations effectively.
“To attain the Millennium Development Goals, Islamic countries need about $150 billion investment by 2015,“ Tahmasb Mazaheri said.
Also, president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Mine, Mohammad Nahavandian, said that globalization has gathered pace in the past three decades since the Islamic fund was established. World trade reached $15 trillion last year.
“A decade passed since heads of Islamic countries gathered in Tehran and made decision on common Islamic market and now it is time to evaluate our performance in the past ten years,“ he concluded.

Minister of Industries and Mines said Saturday that more than 30 industrial projects will be inaugurated by Iran in Venezuela by the end of 2008.
The projects are to be inaugurated on an average of one every 10 days, said Ali Akbar Mehrabian who is in Caracas on the official invitation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The minister also presented Iran’s program on commissioning of the projects to the Venezuelan leader.
Venezuela and Iran have signed over 180 cooperation agreements. More than four-billion-dollar worth of projects are being implemented by Iran in the Latin American country and contracts for schemes valued at over six billion dollars are near finalization.
In a four-hour meeting with Chavez, the minister briefed the Venezuelan president on the details of an Iranian-drafted plan called Apure-Orinoco Industrial Development Project, IRIB reported.
The plan to develop Venezuelan industries in this region was prepared by 150 experts at the request of Chavez.
Mehrabian earlier met the Venezuelan ministers of foreign affairs, basic industry and mining, light industry and commerce, housing and popular economy in the most recent round of Iran-Venezuela’s cooperation talks.
The deal on manufacturing machinery for milk products, flour and plastic will be signed by the two parties soon, Mehrabian said, adding that the red tape for the sale of Samand cars in Venezuela should be removed.
Heading a ranking economic delegation, the Iranian minister left Caracas for Tehran on Saturday.

Block offer of shares of Mobarakeh Steel Complex has failed to find buyers in the stock market once again on Saturday.
Five percent of shares of the giant steel firm were offered at the bourse following the successful sale of five-percent shares of the giant steel company in a single block this week.
Some 790 million stocks of the steel company were sold at a base price of 3,900 rials on Wednesday.
The second block of the company offered at 10:24 a.m. and closed due to lack of buyer(s).
“It seems no consortium was established to buy 790 million shares of the company,“ deputy head of the Privatization Organization, Mehdi Aqdaei, told Fars news agency.
“A number of legal buyers held talks to set up a consortium but negotiations failed since a number of them stepped down.“
He added that two other five-percent shares of the steel giant will be offered at the stock exchange on Sunday and Monday to see what would be the fate of privatization of the company.
Shares of companies are transferred to private sector in line with Article 44 of the Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization in key economic areas and downsizing the government.

Deputy head of Central Bank of Iran for legal and parliamentary affairs disclosed that high council for combating money laundering would be formed soon following the approval of Money Laundering Law on January 22.
The council, headed by Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jafari, will include CBI Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri and ministers of commerce, intelligence and justice, said Heidar Mostakhdemin-Hosseini, Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
The government is serious in combating money laundering, he underlined, adding that the money laundering bill was finally endorsed by the Guardians Council after four years following extensive discussions among parliament, Guardians Council and State Expediency Council.
Grounds for implementing the newly-ratified law will be paved in near future, the official assured.
One important provision in the Money Laundering Law is that owning or holding profits and revenues from illegal activities will be considered a crime and those involved in it would be prosecuted, he elaborated.
If the crime is confirmed, cases against real and legal entities would be brought up with relevant courts, he added.
Highlighting that the administrative bylaws of Money Laundering Law have not yet been ratified, Mostakhdemin-Hosseini expressed the hope that with the formation of the council, the administrative procedures, educational and research programs of the law would be taken up at the earliest.