Abbas Basafa said Monday at the launch ceremony for the national instant fuel smart card issuance project that during the 12-day war the system faced two major challenges: the lack of know-how for card personalization and shortages of equipment needed to produce fuel smart cards.

He said the Fuel Smart Card System has been in place for about 20 years, but daily production capacity has fallen from 70,000 cards to 12,000 due to the absence of necessary equipment and domestic technical expertise.

Basafa said requests for fuel smart cards rose in recent months from 12,000 to 36,000 per day, while production capacity remained at 12,000 cards daily. Following an order from the company’s chief executive, the development of an instant issuance system was put on the agenda, and staff continued work even during the 12-day war, achieving domestic expertise in fuel smart card production in a short time.

He said instant issuance devices were manufactured in less than a month and were operated on a pilot basis for two months.

Under the previous system, Basafa said, it took about two months from application to delivery of a fuel smart card. Now, by applying through the fcs.niopdc.ir portal, the process has been shortened to one day.