Pezeshkian: What Must Not Happen Is Discontent Among Low-Income Groups

The president, noting that the government is bearing the discontent arising from the restriction of unbalanced privileges, stressed: What must not happen is discontent among low-income groups over the distribution of resources and public support. Pezeshkian's post, "What must not happen is discontent among low-income groups," first appeared on Safir Arjan.

According to the report of Arjan Ambassador, Masoud Mezikian, in the meeting to review the process of fuel consumption optimization and management, after receiving the performance report of the devices, emphasized the need to promote inter-departmental coordination, strengthen continuous monitoring, identify resource wastage bottlenecks, and follow up on assigned responsibilities.

In this meeting, a report on the measures taken to organize the fuel distribution system, systematic and targeted distribution of petroleum products and prevent the abuse of fuel cards was presented and it was emphasized that these measures will be associated with a daily reduction of about 3 to 5 million liters of fuel consumption. Also, the amount of fuel import in October, according to the presented statistics, has decreased by 58% compared to October last year.

In this meeting, the president emphasized that the government's main goal of reforming energy subsidy distribution mechanisms is not to earn money, and stated that any amount of benefit and resources obtained from consumption management, waste reduction and fair distribution of subsidies should be used to strengthen the livelihood of low-income groups and improve the economic status of low-income households.

What is important for the government is not making money, but establishing justice

Referring to the necessity of explaining the dimensions of the reform policies to the public opinion, he stressed: In explaining this approach, emphasis should only be placed on the actualization of prices; What is important for the government is not earning money, but establishing justice in the distribution of national resources and fair enjoyment of the country's capacities and wealth by the people.

The priority in reforming subsidies should be public interests and the needs of the poor

The president added: The media and officials should explain the different dimensions of this policy to the society and not allow the issue of justice in the distribution of resources to be considered only from the perspective of price changes. The basic issue is to reform the subsidy allocation mechanisms in such a way that the public interests and the needs of the poor are prioritized.

Referring to the necessity of reviewing the method of gas subsidy allocation, the doctor emphasized the necessity of designing a fair mechanism for households to benefit from government support.

Asking the question why the subsidy allocation mechanism should be such that the owners of several properties enjoy multiple privileges, while some households do not even have one property, the president stated: The subsidy allocation system should be modified in such a way that public support is provided in accordance with the needs and in compliance with social justice considerations.

The doctor emphasized: According to the government's approach, having a subsidized quota should be regulated, and consumption in excess of the set quota, within the framework of legal regulations and approved mechanisms, should be subject to pricing in accordance with the actual cost.

What should not happen is the dissatisfaction of the low-income groups

Stating that the government suffers from the inconvenience caused by limiting the unbalanced privileges, the president clarified: What should not happen is the dissatisfaction of the low-income groups with the way resources and public support are distributed.

Referring to the teachings of Imam Ali (a.s.), he stressed the importance of prioritizing public interests over the interests of privileged groups and said: the satisfaction of the general public can overshadow the dissatisfaction of certain groups; Because it is the general public that forms the foundations of the strength of the society and public policy should be aimed at providing the interests of the majority of the society.

The president obliged the officials to explain to the people the need for fair distribution of resources and its effects on improving the livelihood of households by explaining the government's policies in a clear and well-founded manner.

In another part of this meeting, the doctors considered combating fuel smuggling and preventing deviation of subsidized products from the designated uses as essential requirements of energy consumption management and emphasized on decisive and targeted dealing with violators.

People involved in fuel smuggling should be dealt with

Pointing to the necessity of identifying and cutting off the access of violators to subsidized quotas within the framework of legal regulations, the president stated: First of all, people who are involved in fuel smuggling should be dealt with and their access to subsidized quotas should be limited, including by canceling or blocking the fuel card, according to the regulations and after the violation is confirmed.

Emphasizing the necessity of establishing a continuous and data-oriented monitoring system on the fuel supply, transmission and consumption chain, the physician stated: If the management, control and monitoring of fuel consumption is carried out accurately and continuously, it should be clear how much fuel is consumed in the country, how much is wasted and how much is left from the official distribution network.

The source of any deviation in the distribution chain should be identified

He added: The source of any deviation in the distribution chain should be identified and by closing the smuggling holes and preventing the wastage of resources, the basis for reducing imbalance in the energy sector should be provided. A significant part of existing problems can be reduced through proper management, transparency of information and effective dealing with violations.

The President also emphasized: All the benefits of reducing fuel consumption and preventing wastage of fuel should be allocated to the target community, and none of the government agencies should have any right to these resources. These resources belong to the people and should be charged in the designated way to support the classes.

Emphasizing the necessity of organizing fuel consumption in different sectors, the doctors demanded to determine the status of legal entities and to review the mechanism of allocating subsidized quotas to this sector and clarified: legal entities, regardless of the title and type of activity, should be organized based on specific criteria and there is no need to allocate subsidized gasoline.

Managing the fuel consumption of the public transport fleet is essential

The President considered organizing the fuel consumption of the public transport fleet, especially buses and minibuses in the city, as another essential axis for reforming the consumption pattern, and emphasized the need to create an accurate database of the fleet's condition and fuel consumption.

Referring to the possibility of calculating the fleet information through the cooperation of the executive bodies, he said: Every ministry and responsible body should announce the information about the number of buses and minibuses under its management by province, department and organizational unit so that the amount of diesel consumption of each sector can be determined and compared with evaluable indicators.

Medical experts emphasized: Gathering fleet information, recording the amount of consumption and matching the allocated quotas with actual performance is a workable process and government agencies should be pioneers in this field. The fuel consumption of the government-managed fleet should be transparent, documented and monitorable, and no device should be exempted from performing the tasks related to consumption management.

The president added: consumption management in the public sector, due to the possibility of accessing information and applying direct supervision, should be followed seriously and the performance of the devices in this field should be continuously evaluated.

Allocation of subsidized diesel to unnecessary uses should be reviewed

He emphasized the need to review the allocation of subsidized diesel to unnecessary sectors and demanded the identification of unjustified expenses and the reform of quota allocation mechanisms within the framework of legal regulations.

Emphasizing the necessity of continuous follow-up of the approvals and the accountability of the executive bodies, he stated that the management of fuel consumption should go beyond the level of general recommendations and become a set of executive measures, measurable and based on data.

The President stated: Organizing the fuel distribution system, combating smuggling, clarifying quotas, managing consumption in government agencies and reforming the subsidy allocation pattern should be followed in a coordinated manner so that the national resources are properly protected and the benefits of the reforms are transferred to the target groups.

He emphasized: The measure of success of these policies is not only the reduction of consumption or the reduction of fuel supply costs, but it should be determined how and with what mechanism the freed resources are used to improve people's livelihood, especially the low-income groups. Therefore, all the responsible institutions are obliged to provide documented reports on the performance and results of the actions, in addition to the strict implementation of their tasks, so that it is possible to evaluate the level of achievement of the goals and answer to the public opinion.