Plan to shift Iran's gasoline quota to bank cards enters implementation phase as daily consumption tops 135 million liters

According to Ecoiran, citing Fararu, Iran's plan to shift gasoline quotas from smart fuel cards to vehicle owners' bank cards, which under the 1404 budget law was supposed to be ready by the end of Tir 1404 and had been delayed several times, finally entered its implementation phase in the summer of 1405. Hadi Mahzarnia, head of the National Center for Monitoring the Business Environment, said on Monday, 12 Mordad 1405 (3 August 2026) that the plan would be rolled out nationwide for passenger cars by mid to late autumn, with the main goals of making fuel consumption more transparent, managing the gasoline supply imbalance and combating fuel smuggling. Published figures put national gasoline consumption at more than 135 million liters a day, and Gholamreza Dehghan, a member of parliament's energy committee, had previously put daily gasoline smuggling at about 20 million liters.

The report said the physical process of fueling at stations will not change and the fuel card will still record quota and consumption, but the main change is in how fuel subsidies are calculated, which will now run through the banking network and combine subsidized and free market quotas in a single deduction. Officials stressed the plan does not eliminate the fuel card and does not change gasoline prices or quota amounts.