The unveiling ceremony of production of Smart Fuel Card was held with the participation of members of the Board of Directors of Bank Melli Iran (BMI), senior managers of the National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company and also Chief Executive of the Publishing and Printing Company of Bank Melli Iran, the Public Relations Department of the bank reported.

The Caretaker of Bank Melli Iran Abolfazl Najjarzadeh was the first speaker who said that cooperation of Bank Melli Iran with the National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company was taken after in line with realizing the instructions of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on self-sufficiency and supporting the domestic production.

Whenever the country has been dependent on foreign countries for the strategic production, these countries have left the country empty-handed in times of crisis. Therefore, localization of smart fuel cards in the country can eliminate the concerns that exist in this regard.

Najjarzadeh seized this opportunity to appreciate the unflinching efforts of manpower and staff of BMI’s Publishing and Printing Company and added, “With an 85-year experience in the field of printing, the Publishing and Printing Company is one of the oldest companies that printed banknotes and securities in the country when the Central Bank had not been established.”

Publishing and printing Smart Fuel Card has become possible only with the technical know-how and knowledge of staff of the company and it is hoped that this trend will continue in future, the caretaker emphasized.

The Publishing and Printing Company of Bank Melli Iran enjoys high capacity and capability to print and publish 10 million fuel cards annually, he emphasized.

He went on to say that Bank Melli Iran is ready to produce Smart Fuel Card in the country.

The capabilities of this company made it enter the field of producing smart fuel cards, and currently, samples of the National ID Cards have been produced and delivered to the National Organization for Civil Registration, he said and reiterated that as soon as these cards are approved, the process of producing Smart Cards will also start in this company to remove the people's concerns in this regard.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Najjarzadeh emphasized on the expansion of technical and knowledge-based cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and added that Bank Melli Iran (BMI) is fully prepared to launch fuel electronic wallets for millions of bank customers and equip fuel stations with new payment tools based on the world’s most modern technologies.

BMI to Remove Restriction of Number of Smart Fuel Card: Nejadali

Ali Akbar Nejadali the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said, “With the giant step taken by the Bank Melli Iran, the restriction of publishing the number of smart fuel cards was eliminated.”

Currently, the smart fuel card "chip" technology is unique to several countries, and the localization of printing smart fuel card Bank Melli Iran’s Publishing and Printing Company is a good news. It is hoped that the country will completely become self-sufficient from other countries, he underlined.

In the current situation, there are bottlenecks and problems for the owners of fuel cards whose fuel cards have been missed, and “We are obliged to produce these cards and provide them with these cards.”

To solve the problems in the number of smart fuel cards, the National Iranian Oil Refining & distribution Company previously tried to produce these cards by some contractors from the countries owning this technology but this process took a long time.

After that, the Publishing and Printing Company of Bank Melli Iran embarked on concluding a contract for producing one million smart fuel cards given the high capability and capacity of this company in producing these types of card, Nejadali emphasized.

The National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company (NIORDC) will expand its cooperation with the Bank Melli Iran in the very near future for the production of Smart Fuel Cards, the CEO of the company added.