Iran to retire the fuel card for passenger cars by autumn, moving petrol quotas onto bank cards

Hadi Mahzarnia, head of Iran's National Centre for Monitoring and Improving the Business Environment and the official running the transfer of fuel quotas onto bank cards, said on Tuesday, 4 August 2026 (13 Mordad 1405), in an interview with Radio Eqtesad that the plan is being worked toward becoming operational for passenger cars by autumn this year. Extending the scheme to diesel vehicles is also on the agenda.

He said the plan aims to increase transparency in fuel consumption, manage demand and reduce the petrol supply imbalance. Mahzarnia said precise knowledge of how vehicles and their owners consume fuel allows better planning and the use of non price policies to control consumption, so that the fuel imbalance can be managed with the least pressure on the public.

He stressed that changing the refuelling process for millions of people must be phased so that people are not faced with a behavioural shock. Iran's petrol imbalance is one of the country's open economic files, and the way quotas are distributed bears on domestic consumption, the energy subsidy burden and the car market.