Five days after an apparent cyberattack on a payment system at Iran’s 4,000 gas stations, full service has been restored in only half the locations.
On Tuesday, gas stations nationwide were disabled from accepting a special payment card for cheaper fuel issued to every Iranian. The disruption led to long lines at stations and higher cash prices for gasoline.
A top official said Saturday that around 2,000 pumping stations could again sell rationed gasoline, a slow process compared with promises on the day of the incident that the system would be fixed in one day.
The government has said that a cyberattack disabled the system, while experts say the payment system was not connected to the Internet. There is no independent confirmation of what caused the disruption.
The Iranian government and parliament, both dominated by hardliners, want to reduce fuel subsidies that makes Iranian gasoline the second cheapest in the world, after Venezuela. The price of one gallon has risen to more than 40 US cents from a subsidized rate of around 20 cents.
Although still unbelievably cheap, but the income of an average employee in Iran is around $150 a month.