“We cannot use the income from oil to buy gasoline for over 5,000 rials per liter and give it to people for 800 rials,’’ said Ismail Jabarzadeh, a member of Parliament. “We have postponed making this decision for many years, but eventually the right decision should be made.”

Those funds will be exhausted by August, and the government must then either secure more money for the imports or begin limiting consumption. Without imports, drivers would have to consume 42 percent less gasoline.

Parliament and the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are still discussing options, including rationing domestically produced gasoline and selling imported gasoline at its regional price.

The minister of economy, Davoud Danesh-Jafari, said Monday that rationing would have to wait until at least December, the ISNA student news agency reported, so that the government could issue smart cards to track sales to replace its gasoline coupons, which are easily sold on the black market.

And while the government has publicly said it definitely intended to ration supplies, doing so would risk serious political and social consequences. Even the previous president, Mohammad Khatami, who encouraged liberalizing the economy, was afraid to raise gas prices or ration supplies, fearing inflation and social discontent.