Keramat Veis-Karami spoke Tuesday at the first national conference on preventing and combating the smuggling of oil products. He emphasized the need for strict enforcement of relevant laws and procedures.

“Based on the law to combat the smuggling of goods and currency and cabinet approvals, specific duties have been assigned to relevant agencies and consumers,” Veis-Karami said. “Unfortunately, some agencies do not fully comply with these procedures, which has led to diversion and fuel smuggling in the country.”

He explained that the price disparity is a primary cause. “Fuel is sold across our borders at prices of about 80,000 to 90,000 tomans per liter, while inside the country, the same fuel is provided to the people at a subsidized rate of about 300 tomans. This price gap creates the main grounds for smuggling.”

The CEO stated that an average of 120 million liters of diesel is distributed nationwide daily, with about 50% consumed by the transportation sector. “Fortunately, through the joint actions of agencies, daily diesel consumption has variably decreased by 3 to 5 million liters in some recent months,” he said.

Collaboration Leads to 700m Liter Reduction

Veis-Karami said that over the past year, the Economic Security Police, the Central Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling, and the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company have worked together. Through intelligence and field operations, they have identified fake waybills, fraudulent activity permits and illegal fuel cards.

“These actions have led to a significant reduction in diesel consumption,” he said, adding that without these controls, consumption would have increased instead of decreasing.

He noted that, per a 2014 cabinet ruling, the transport fleet was required to be equipped with monitoring and GPS systems, but this mandate has not been fully implemented. “Although the Oil Ministry and the distribution company do not have a direct duty in this area, they have used the minimal available data to create internal monitoring systems and, with the cooperation of regulatory bodies, have managed to achieve a reduction in consumption.”

Veis-Karami also addressed consumption in the power plant, agricultural and industrial sectors, stating that power plants receive about 20 billion liters of liquid fuel annually, about 12 to 13 billion liters of which is diesel. The agriculture and industry sectors each receive about 4 billion liters of diesel per year.

“All these entities and organs need to develop precise consumption patterns,” he said.

Agencies Required to Set Consumption Patterns, Prevent Excess Fuel Delivery

Veis-Karami stressed that the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade must prepare and implement consumption patterns for their subordinate units to prevent diversion and smuggling.

“Observing justice, integrity in reporting and adhering to laws are the main conditions for success in the fight against fuel smuggling, and the cooperation of all agencies in this path is essential,” he said.

He identified “unwarranted fuel requests by consumer organizations” as one of the most significant current problems in supplying the country's fuel.

“According to Article 44 of the law to combat the smuggling of goods and currency, the oil products distribution company and other relevant agencies are required to control the consumption rate and prevent the delivery of surplus fuel,” Veis-Karami said.

In conclusion, the CEO emphasized that “precise monitoring of consumption not only prevents smuggling but also establishes justice in benefiting from the fuel subsidy.”