Iranians Are Running Out of Gas as Economic Squeeze Takes Hold
Cuts to subsidies and quotas fuel anger and spur walkouts by truck and taxi drivers
- Iran doubled some gasoline prices to the equivalent of $0.04 a liter, a drain for Iranians, many of whom don’t earn much more than $100 a month.
- The fuel price hikes and quota cuts have triggered protests and strikes by Iranian truck, taxi and ride-share drivers.
- The Iranian government slashed the subsidies as it struggles to repair war-damaged refineries and import fuel through a U.S. blockade.
Long lines at gas stations. Strikes by truckers. A government struggling to maintain the subsidies that had helped much of the population keep their heads above water.
The economic fallout from the war and the American blockade is adding to the pain facing ordinary Iranians who are already struggling with a plunging currency, worsening joblessness and rising prices for everything from food to trash bags.
On Monday, the government doubled some gasoline prices to the equivalent of $0.04 a liter. Filling a tank after the cheapest rations are exhausted could now cost $2 for a car and $5 for a truck, a drain for Iranians, most of whom don’t earn much more than $100 a month.
Some gas stations ran dry as drivers rushed to fill up before the new prices took effect. The increases were directed at passenger vehicles filling up beyond their allocated quotas and come after Tehran already cut the monthly subsidized allocations. Some drivers, unable to get fuel, were left stranded, and taxi drivers and truckers spoke out against the worsening living conditions.
The Islamic Republic has been forced to slash subsidies as the cost of public support rises. It also is scrambling to repair damage done to its refineries during the war and faces difficulties importing gasoline through the blockade.
On Wednesday, a driver in Aryanshahr, in the conservative heartland of northeast Iran, said he was stranded with his family at a gas station after trying to refuel.
“They say the gasoline is finished; until tomorrow,” he said in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran, an independent trade union representing the transport sector. It was verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp, parent company of The Wall Street Journal.
Workers and retirees in the telecommunications, oil and teaching sectors have protested deteriorating living conditions. They are now being joined by truck and taxi drivers disproportionately hurt by the fuel crisis.
On Thursday, 120 taxi drivers in the eastern province of Kerman protested a cut in their allocation of subsidized fuel, according to the Union of Truckers and Drivers. They said they were now out of supplies for a third of every month.
“We are waiting 20 days for passengers, 10 days struggling with fuel shortages!” one of them told the union.
Workers for delivery and ride-share service Snapp, the Iranian version of Uber and once a symbol of the country’s business hopes, also went on strike this week in several cities.
Snapp launched in 2014 during a period of economic opening and is now one of the country’s biggest private employers, with 3 million drivers. In Arak, an industrial hub in western Iran, dozens lined up Monday in front of the governor’s office and said they could no longer make ends meet.
One held a placard that said, “These fares don’t keep the wheels of life turning,” according to a video verified by Storyful.
On Sunday, drivers paraded across the main thoroughfares of Semnan, a city east of Tehran, blocking traffic, according to footage verified by Storyful.
“We’ve all stopped; no one is working,” one of the drivers said in a video.
The fuel crisis is also triggering discontent among bigger transporters. In late August, truck drivers at the Mehran terminal on the border with Iraq went on a one-day strike to protest fuel shortages, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S. nonprofit. The crossing plays a key role in bringing food staples to the country.
On Tuesday, truckers in the Strait of Hormuz port of Bandar Abbas, which handles the bulk of Iran’s container traffic, warned they could follow suit.
“It is the driver and the driver’s family who have to pay for it from their pockets,” the port’s truckers said about fuel price hikes in a statement posted by Iran’s Union of Truckers and Drivers. “The issue is that we can no longer bear these pressures.”
Transporters say they are experiencing fuel problems they didn’t face during the active combat of the first month of the war with the U.S.
Haulers “were busy transporting cargo during the war and under missile attacks and did not stop the flow of cargo even for an hour,” Jalal Mousavi, vice president of the country’s Truck Drivers Association, which is close to the government, told the state-controlled Iran Labor News Agency on Sunday. But today, “drivers face long lines to refuel.”
Inflation, already running at 128% in August for food, is set to worsen after the Iranian currency fell sharply in recent weeks, as diplomatic progress stalled and the U.S. tightened its economic pressure campaign.
On Wednesday, the rial crossed 2.3 million to the dollar, a new low.
Snapp, which also offers delivery services, is now letting customers buy groceries and even taxi services in four installments.
A Tehran dweller in his 70s said he had been shocked by the price of plastic products. Israel hit Iranian petrochemical plants hard early in the war. A roll of 30 garbage bags now costs the equivalent of $4.26.
He owns property and said he has raised the rent he charges by 250% over the past five years to a monthly $149.
Another resident in her 40s said she now shops for food in warehouses used by wholesalers and has had to cut spending for her child’s school supplies.
There are still signs of wealth, she said, suspecting there are people making money off the scarcity caused by the sanctions. The wealthy still shop for expensive jewelry at a luxury shopping center in Tehran.
But most have become extremely poor, she said. It has become a subject of plays, painting exhibitions and independent films.
“Everything is about poverty,” she said.