Iran says it expects its gasoline consumption to decline by an average of 12 million liters per day over the next 12 months, as a new fuel rationing program gets underway.

Lotfollah Foruzandeh-Dehkordi, Vice Chairman of the Majlis Research Center, told IRNA that a Majlis Joint Commission has limited gasoline imports for the new Iranian calendar year to $2.5 billion, a move expected to help lower consumption to 60 million liters per day from the current 72 million.

Other parliamentary restrictions on fuel imports are also intended to check Iran's ever-increasing fuel consumption by encouraging motorists to economize.

Foruzandeh-Dehkordi said Iran consumes as much gasoline as some European nations that have eight times more cars on their roads, suggesting that Iranians are wasting gasoline.

Majlis voted earlier this month to ration gasoline as of June.

The move has sparked heated debate about the social and economic effects of fuel rationing, particularly for the lower-income segments of Iranian society who already face heavy financial pressures.

The MP said that the Ahmadinejad administration wanted to avoid a direct price hike on fuel to curb consumption habits, since any significant rise in petrol prices is expected to drive up the inflation rate by as much as 40 percent.

Proponents of the initiative argue that the government could have spent the four billion dollars that it paid last year for gasoline imports to develop public transportation and boost the nation's oil refining industry.

Fuel consumption is extremely high in Iran, where gasoline is literally cheaper than water. Gas pumps sell fuel for less than nine cents per liter while bottled water costs Iranians nearly twice as much.

HRE/MR/BG