Keramat Veis-Karami, managing director of NIOPDC, said the Ministry of Oil is mandated under the national budget law to work with the Central Bank of Iran and the Plan and Budget Organization to enable the transfer of fuel quotas from fuel smart cards to vehicle owners’ bank cards within four months of the law’s enactment.

According to Veis-Karami, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance is also required under the same legislation to draft the executive bylaw in cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum, the Central Bank of Iran, and the Planning and Budget Organization, and to have it ratified by the Cabinet within two months.

He noted that several technical and managerial meetings have been held—coordinated by the Planand Budget Organization and involving the Petroleum Ministry and Central Bank of Iran—to draft the bylaw. The proposal has been reviewed multiple times in the Economic Commission of the Cabinet Office and is currently awaiting final decision.

Veis-Karami added that alongside the preliminary drafting phase, a pilot implementation of the scheme was carried out at a selected Tehran fuel station by a private company. However, he said the process encountered various technical, cybersecurity, and operational issues due to disruptions in the banking system and ambiguities in the bylaw.

He emphasized that once the bylaw is finalized and approved—addressing technical, security, and strategic defense considerations as required by the national budget law—NIOPDC will proceed with the implementation in accordance with the approved guidelines.