Tehran, Iran, May 3
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
CEO of Iran's Fuel Consumption Optimization Co. Nosratollah Seifi said that the company is planning to carry out a pilot operation of substituting cash subsidies to energy carriers with fuel cards.
The pilot experiment is to be carried out in Qeshm island in southern Iran, Fars news agency reported May 3.
The plan is to be passed by the government in order to be implemented. The aim of the plan is to fight smuggling fuel.
Based on the plan, energy prices will turn real and fuel cards will replace subsidies, Seifi explained.
Currently, some 7 million liters of gas oil are smuggled via Iran per day.
In May 2013, Alireza Zeighami, the former Iranian deputy oil minister for refining and distribution, said a lucrative cross-border business of smuggling fuel and goods via Iran has emerged, bolstered by a sharp drop in the value of the Iranian currency.
Fuel, especially diesel, is being illegally transferred out of the country through cities bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey, Zeighami said.
Mehdi Sepahvand is Trend Agency's journalist in Iran, follow him on Twitter: @mehdisepahvand