TEHRAN - The Iranian government has approved a plan to provide some 35 percent of the country’s 83 million population with free water, electricity, and gas in a bid to support low-income families.

“Energy-efficient households, who are mostly from among low-income strata of the society, will receive free-of-charge water, gas, and electricity,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Wednesday.

Some 30 million people will benefit from the plan, he said, adding, vacant residential units and villas will not be included, he stressed.

President Hassan Rouhani said on December 9 that it is a great honor for the government to provide low-income families with free water, gas, and electricity.

“We supplied people with free gas, but we became self-sufficient in gas production beforehand so that we can meet the domestic demand in winter and even be able to export”.

“In the field of electricity, we achieved notable growth. We added the generation capacity and then we made supply free of charge. We also took substantial measures for reducing water consumption and water loss in different sectors,” Rouhani explained.

 Supporting corona-affected households

Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohammad Nahavandian said in November that the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control has come up with 14 plans to support households and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Two of these 14 decisions are related to households and nine are for all businesses, while three are pertaining to the businesses that have been severely affected by the negative impacts of the pandemic."

According to the official, the support packages for households will be provided for those without fixed-income who live in red-zones.

Nahavandian noted that nearly 30 million people are expected to benefit from the support plan.

MG