Iranian Oil Ministry says the country has paid energy subsidies to its citizens nearly twice its oil revenues.
In an announcement on Monday, the ministry said that Iran pays an annual $80 billion in fuel subsidies while the country’s last year oil revenues stood at $43 billion.
The figures provided by the ministry suggest that the country is paying energy subsidies nearly twice its revenues from oil sales.
A recent World Bank report unveiled that Iran was the third-largest worldwide provider of subsidies for energy consumption in 2020.
The report showed that the Iranian government had disbursed as much as $41.72 billion in energy subsidies to its citizens in that year, trailing only behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Electricity received the largest share of the subsidy payments provided by the Iranian government in 2020, at some $26.51 billion.
An additional $15.21 billion was allocated to gasoline and other oil products in that year, and $10.44 billion went to consumer subsidies for diesel.
In total, five countries; Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and Venezuela, accounted for nearly half of the world’s total energy subsidies.