Iranian ex-footballer grilled on Twitter for his electricity bill
A famous former Iranian footballer has been grilled on Twitter for his astronomical electricity bill amid a power shortage that has caused outages in the country.
Ali Karimi, mostly known for his two years in Germany’s Bayern Munich in the mid-2000s, was under fire on Twitter on Saturday after it became known that he had consumed 6,280 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity in 32 days.
That came after Karimi posted a screenshot of a message received from the electricity board in Tehran that showed power supply to his house could be cut off because of his massive consumption.
Karimi criticized power cut notices issued amid outages that have affected normal life in Tehran and other large cities.
However, a spokesman of the Iranian state electricity company Tavanir responded on Twitter by saying that the former footballer’s electricity usage was 21 times the average consumption by an Iranian household.
Experts say the heavily subsidized rates are a main cause of soaring demand for electricity in Iran. They point to a rise in illegal crypto mining activity in recent years as an example, saying the energy-intensive process is costing the country dearly.
Details of Karimi’s electricity bill showed he has to pay 7,370 rials (nearly $0.03) on average for each KWh of electricity he has consumed.
Reacting to the skyrocketing bill and the cheap rates applied, one Twitter user said he was enraged that a rich footballer’s electricity bill was equal to the monthly salary of simple worker in Iran.
Another one grilled Karimi for his excessive and “illogical” energy use, saying the former footballer may have been running a botcoin farm in his mansion in northeast Tehran.
Raeisi attends inauguration of Iran-built mega multipurpose project in Sri Lanka
Pakistan determined to complete Iran gas pipeline project
Iran discovers giant shale oil reserves in several regions
Two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
VIDEO | Islamabad rejects US report on rights practices in Pakistan
VIDEO | Yemenis endorse naval forces' attacks on Israeli-linked ships
VIDEO | New national transport strike hits Italy
US to pull out troops from Chad in second African state withdrawal
Yemeni armed forces strike British oil tanker in Red Sea
VIDEO | Genocide in Gaza
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
