Pezeshkian: Fuel Consumption of Public Transport Fleet Must Be Managed

The President stressed the need to manage and regulate fuel consumption of the public transport fleet.

According to Ambassador Arjan, a review meeting on the process of fuel consumption optimization and management was held in the presence of Dr. Masoud Bizikian, the president and the officials of executive bodies and relevant institutions.

In this meeting, the latest actions of the responsible institutions in the implementation of the announced tasks, the degree of realization of the planned plans to reduce fuel consumption and the performance of different departments in the field of management and monitoring of the distribution of energy carriers were reviewed.

While receiving the reports on the performance of the institutions, the President emphasized the need to promote inter-departmental coordination, strengthen continuous monitoring, identify resource wastage bottlenecks, and follow up on assigned responsibilities.

During this meeting, a report was presented on the measures taken to organize the fuel distribution system, systematic and targeted distribution of petroleum products, and to prevent the misuse of fuel cards. According to the report presented in the meeting, these measures will be accompanied by a daily reduction of about 3 to 5 million liters of fuel consumption. Also, the amount of fuel import in October, according to the presented statistics, has decreased by 58% compared to October last year.

justice in the distribution of subsidies; The focus of energy consumption management policies

In this meeting, the president emphasized that the government's main goal of reforming energy subsidy distribution mechanisms is not to earn money, and stated that any amount of benefit and resources obtained from consumption management, waste reduction and fair distribution of subsidies should be spent on strengthening the livelihood of low-income groups and improving the economic status of low-income households.

Referring to the necessity of explaining the dimensions of the reform policies to the public opinion, he pointed out: in the explanation of this approach, emphasis should not be placed only on the issue of actualization of prices; What is important for the government is not earning money, but establishing justice in the distribution of national resources and fair enjoyment of the country's capacities and wealth by the people.

The president added: The media and officials should explain the various dimensions of this policy to the society and not allow the issue of justice in the distribution of resources to be considered only from the angle of price changes. The basic issue is to reform the subsidy allocation mechanisms in such a way that the public interests and the needs of the poor are prioritized.

Modifying the pattern of gas subsidy allocation and preventing unbalanced benefits

Referring to the necessity of reviewing the method of allocating the gas subsidy, the physician also emphasized the necessity of designing a fair mechanism for households to benefit from government support.

By raising the question of why the subsidy allocation mechanism should be such that the owners of several properties enjoy multiple privileges, while some households do not even have one property, the president stated: the subsidy allocation system should be modified in such a way that public support is provided in accordance with the needs and in compliance with social justice considerations.

The doctor emphasized: According to the government's approach, having a subsidized quota should be regulated, and consumption in excess of the set quota, within the framework of legal regulations and approved mechanisms, should be subject to pricing in accordance with the actual cost.

Stating that the government suffers from the inconvenience caused by limiting unbalanced points, the president clarified: What should not happen is the dissatisfaction of the low-income classes with the way resources and public support are distributed.

Referring to the governance teachings of Amirul Momineen Ali (AS), he emphasized the necessity of prioritizing public interests over the interests of privileged groups and said: The satisfaction of the general public can overshadow the dissatisfaction of certain groups. Because it is the general public that forms the foundations of the strength of the society and public policy should be aimed at providing the interests of the majority of the society.

The president also obliged the officials to explain to the people the necessity of fair distribution of resources and its effects on improving the livelihood of households by explaining the government's policies in a clear and well-founded manner.

Dealing with fuel smuggling and blocking resource diversion routes

In another part of this meeting, the doctors considered combating fuel smuggling and preventing deviation of subsidized products from the designated uses as essential requirements of energy consumption management and emphasized on decisive and targeted dealing with violators.

Pointing to the necessity of identifying and cutting off the access of violators to subsidized points within the framework of legal regulations, the President stated: First of all, people who are involved in fuel smuggling should be dealt with and their access to subsidized quotas should be limited, including by canceling or blocking the fuel card, according to the regulations and after establishing the violation.

Emphasizing the necessity of establishing a continuous and data-oriented monitoring system on the fuel supply, transmission and consumption chain, the physician stated: If the management, control and monitoring of fuel consumption is carried out accurately and continuously, it should be clear how much fuel is consumed in the country, how much is wasted and how much is left from the official distribution network.

The president added: The source of any deviation in the distribution chain should be identified and by closing the smuggling holes and preventing the wastage of resources, the basis for reducing imbalance in the energy sector should be provided. A significant part of existing problems can be reduced through proper management, transparency of information and effective dealing with violations.

Medicalians also emphasized: All the benefits of reducing fuel consumption and preventing wastage of fuel should be allocated to the target community, and none of the government agencies should have any right to these resources. These resources belong to the people and should be charged in the designated way to support the classes.

Organization of legal entities and revision of fuel quota allocation

Emphasizing the need to organize fuel consumption in different sectors, the President demanded to determine the status of legal entities and review the mechanism of allocating subsidy quotas to this sector.

Medical entities clarified: legal entities, regardless of the title and type of activity, must be organized based on specific criteria and there is no need to allocate subsidized gasoline.

The necessity of fuel consumption management of the public transport fleet

Furthermore, the President considered organizing the fuel consumption of the public transport fleet, especially buses and minibuses in the city, as another essential axis for reforming the consumption pattern, and emphasized the need to create an accurate database of the fleet's condition and its fuel consumption.

Referring to the possibility of calculating the fleet information through the cooperation of the executive bodies, the doctors said: Every ministry and responsible body should announce the information about the number of buses and minibuses under its management by province, department and organizational unit so that the amount of diesel consumption of each sector can be determined and compared with evaluable indicators.

The President emphasized: "Collecting fleet information, recording the amount of consumption and matching the allocated quotas with actual performance is a viable process and government agencies should be pioneers in this field." The fuel consumption of the government-managed fleet should be transparent, documented and monitorable, and no device should be exempted from performing the tasks related to consumption management.

Medical management added: consumption management in the public sector, due to the possibility of accessing information and applying direct supervision, should be followed seriously and the performance of devices in this field should be continuously evaluated.

Reviewing the allocation of subsidized diesel to unnecessary uses

The president also emphasized the need to review the allocation of subsidized diesel to unnecessary sectors and demanded the identification of unjustified expenses and the reform of quota allocation mechanisms within the framework of legal regulations.

Emphasizing the accountability of institutions and returning the benefits of reforms to the people

Summarizing the discussions, the doctors emphasized the necessity of continuous follow-up of the approvals and the accountability of executive bodies, and stated that fuel consumption management should go beyond the level of general recommendations and become a set of measurable and data-based executive measures.

The President pointed out: Organizing the fuel distribution system, combating smuggling, clarifying quotas, managing consumption in government agencies and reforming the subsidy allocation pattern should be followed in a coordinated manner so that the national resources are properly protected and the benefits of the reforms are transferred to the target groups.

At the end, the doctor emphasized: the success criteria of these policies is not only reducing fuel consumption or fuel supply costs, but it should be determined how and with what mechanism the freed resources are used to improve people's livelihood, especially the low-income groups. Therefore, all the responsible institutions are obliged to provide documented reports on the performance and results of the actions, in addition to the strict implementation of their tasks, so that it is possible to evaluate the level of achievement of the goals and answer to the public opinion.