October 08, 2021
The Energy Ministry says it is now supplying electricity for free to about 40 percent of the country’s households.
The government began offering free power one year ago to households that consumed very little electricity. The goal was to induce more families to watch their power usage and get it down so they didn’t pay anything.
The ministry said the program began in August 2020 with seven million of Iran’s 25 million households getting free power. Now that has risen to 10 million or 40 percent of the country’s households.
At the same time as it offered free power to those using little, the Energy Ministry boosted prices by one-third for those households using the most power.
The government hasn’t yet said whether the two changes mean the program is a wash with high users covering the costs of free power for small consumers or whether the power program is costing the government even more.