Iran needs $3.8 bln for 2009-10 gasoline imports

TEHRAN, Nov 2 - Iran needs an additional $3.8 billion to pay for gasoline imports until March 2010 and experts have proposed cutting the subsidised quota of the fuel this winter, a senior official said in comments published on Monday.

Iran is the world's fifth-largest crude exporter but lacks sufficient refining capacity to meet domestic gasoline needs, forcing it to import large volumes which it then sells at heavily subsidised prices, burdening the budget.

Tehran has taken steps to discourage consumption and reduce costs, introducing fuel rationing in 2007 and pushing ahead with plans to gradually phase out energy and food subsidies.

Iran's need to import gasoline also makes it potentially vulnerable to any international sanctions targeting such trade, a measure which is being considered in the West if the Islamic Republic presses on with its disputed nuclear programme.

"Iran needs $3.8 billion... to import gasoline (until the end of the Iranian year next March)," said Mohammad Rouyanian, who heads a government transportation and fuel management body, Jam-e Jam newspaper reported.

The newspaper report did not specify how much Iran had already spent this year on such imports.

The estimate was sharply lower than a figure of $6.5 billion cited by another senior energy official last month, but that also included imports of diesel. Officials were not immediately available for comment on Monday.

Under the rationing scheme launched in mid-2007, private motorists can buy 100 litres of fuel every month for the price of 1,000 rials per litre (about 10 U.S. cents), giving Iranians some of the cheapest fuel in the world. For gasoline above that level, the cost is 4,000 rials per litre.

Last month, state television said Iran plans to nearly halve the amount of subsidised gasoline, but it did not say when the change would be implemented.

"The suggestion to cut the allocated fuel to cars in the winter has been handed over to the (organisation's) headquarters," Rouyanian said, adding it was a proposal by experts.