Iran's Power Ministry Says Electricity Bills Cover Only Part of Operating Costs

Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi, Iran's deputy power minister for electricity and energy, told an electricity industry exhibition that receipts from consumers cover about 40 percent of the running cost of buying electricity and power-plant fuel. He estimated the industry's funding shortfall at about 2,000 trillion tomans and said the gap between tariffs and costs limits expansion and payment to generators.

The ministry estimates that its electricity development plan requires about 27 billion dollars of investment, he said. He called for greater private-sector and industrial participation in plant construction and a broader competitive power market, while saying the ministry aims to avoid a price shock for lower-consumption customers. The head of Iran's Electricity Syndicate said at the same event that actual investment was below the level needed.