Iran’s Energy Minister Wants Crypto Miners Charged Real Electricity Prices

The deputy energy minister of Iran has said that electricity bills for digital currency miners should be calculated in accordance to real prices, Iranian economic daily newspaper Financial Tribune reported on June 9.

Iran’s deputy energy minister, Homayoun Haeri, has stated that electricity bills for cryptocurrency mining activities should be priced according to the same rates established for power exports. The government reportedly pays nearly $1 billion in subsidies annually to bridge the gap in real electricity costs and what consumers are billed, Financial Tribune writes.

As reported last December, Iranians were profiting from digital currency mining despite the crash in the crypto markets and fluctuations in the national rial currency caused by reinforced United States sanctions.

Iran had demonstrated a positive stance towards crypto mining last September, when major government authorities — including the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the central bank, the Ministry of Energy, and others — accepted crypto mining as an industry.

At the time, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council stated that the Iranian National Cyberspace Center was developing a platform for cryptocurrency mining regulation, while the relevant authorities considered the development of crypto mining-related regulatory framework.

In an attempt to gain economic stability in the country, the Iranian government has also been considering the launch of its own state-backed cryptocurrency. In August of last year, Iran’s National Cyberspace Center revealed that the draft of the government-backed crypto project was ready, following instructions from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

A recent Cointelegraph analysis looked at the changing attitudes of the government towards cryptocurrencies, as well as how it affects Iranian crypto users.