Al Jazeera: When 37-year-old apparel retailer Farshad was getting ready to go to sleep just after midnight on Friday, his phone alerts suddenly blew up with social media posts reacting to a government policy that many figured was in the pipeline, but that had still struck without warning.

The government in Iran had announced that - effective immediately - petrol would be rationed and prices would triple.

"I guess we all knew this was happening one way or another, since the government has been reintroducing fuel cards for rationing," said Farshad, who asked Al Jazeera to withhold his surname to protect his privacy. "But a midnight announcement and this price hike came out of nowhere."

In the early hours of Friday morning, Iranian state television broadcasted a statement by the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company saying petrol will now be rationed across the country using smart fuel cards.

Vehicles for private use are to be restricted to 60 litres (16gal) of fuel monthly, while the price of petrol will jump 50 percent to 15,000 Iranian rials ($0.13 at open market rates) per litre. Any fuel purchases in excess of allotted rations will incur an additional charge of 30,000 rials ($0.26) per litre >>>