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Indonesia to Play Fuel Smart Card

Monday, May 12, 2008

by Adi Tedjasaputra

After recently announcing the plan to raise the price of fuel, the Indonesian government spearheaded by Downstream Oil and Gas Regulator (BPH Migas) has confirmed the roll out plan of a Fuel Smart Card programme in September. After securing Rp 300 billion ($32.6 million) from the state budget approved by the Finance Ministry and endorsement from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, BPH Migas has announced a tender for the procurement process.

The tender for the procurement process, which is expected to last for 45 days, has started last Wednesday, as reported by Media Indonesia when quoting the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Purnomo Yusgiantoro. The winner of the tender will have 80 days to implement the programme, so the Fuel Smart Card programme can run from September 2008.

The Fuel Smart Card programme that aims to limit the consumption of subsidized fuel has been mulled over since last year and delayed, but it was only recently when the oil price shot up, threatened the economic growth and state budget spending, the Indonesian government decided to move forward with the programme.

Fuel Smart Card.

In the programme, a smart card in a size of credit card and printed with a bar code will be attached to a location on a vehicle, depending whether it is a public bus, motorcycle or private car. Before filling up the tank, a fuel station officer should scan the smart card with a reader. A successful reading of the smart card will result in the vehicle registration number and its fuel quota data to be displayed on a monitor installed at the station. Based on the reading, the vehicle's owner can only buy fuel according to the remaining quota.

Similar to the parking pilot project programme executed by the Jakarta City Administration in 2003 and the Fuel Smart Card programme in Tehran, Iran, the Indonesian Fuel Smart Card programme, which is currently on trial, still relies heavily on the readiness of stakeholders involved. The Jakarta City Administration abandoned the parking pilot project after the project was swamped by operational problems in 2003, while the introduction of Fuel Smart Card programme in Tehran sparked violence last year. In both cases, the stakeholders were not ready to accept the introduced systems.

Fortunately, the Indonesian government still has a chance to learn from the past and make a better decision in the Fuel Smart Card programme. There is still a room for improvement on the programme that can ease the transition from the current system and prepare all stakeholders involved to achieve the best results.

The writer is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.

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Labels: card, fuel, indonesia, project, rfid, smart, smartcard, tender