TEHRAN - The World Bank has reported that Iran is the third-largest provider of subsidies worldwide for energy consumption.
The newly-released report, compiled based on statistics from 2020, said the Iranian government disbursed $41.72 billion in energy subsidies to its citizens in that year, trailing behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Electricity received the largest share of the subsidy payments provided by the Iranian government in 2020, at $26.51 billion.
An additional $15.21 billion was allocated to gasoline and other oil products in that year, and $10.44 billion to consumer subsidies for diesel.
In total, five countries; Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and Venezuela, accounted for nearly half of the world’s total energy subsidies.
They collectively allocated $211 billion in subsidies for fuel consumption to their citizens, equivalent to almost half of global explicit subsidies.