Tehran, Iran, July 22
Trend:
Iran plans to revive its smart fuel card policy in the near future to prevent smuggling, while some believe the gasoline price was the main cause of the problem.
International energy expert Mahmoud Khaghani discussed Iran's policy to revive fuel card in an interview with Trend.
"The government policies in this regard were wrong; however, the fuel card can be an advantage for collecting statistics on gasoline consumption and monitoring fuel consumers," he noted.
The expert emphasized that some of government plans are not based on macro plan in energy field and, therefore, the effect of these plans are temporary.
"The revival of fuel card is some kind of sedative in the attempts to reduce fuel smuggling, since the smugglers can escape the obstacles by using computer program and continue their activities," he added.
"If the fuel price in the country was equal to those in neighbor countries and Persian Gulf FOB, the rise of price will help to reduce the volume of smuggled fuel,” he said.
"The only way to prevent smuggling is to improve energy price, although the smuggling is not limited to gasoline only. There are traces of smuggling in the field of electricity, in Bitcoin mining and other crypto currencies as well as smuggling mineral and crude material," he noted.
The National Iranian Oil Product Distribution Company has recently announced that the use of personal fuel card is obligatory from July 11. As reported, the plan aims to prevent abuses and confront fuel smuggling.
The latest NIOPDC announcement states the individuals should look for the validity of their fuel card before July 23 by using their card at least once.