Terror and fuel smuggling to be fought with vehicle tracking chips

Turkey is activating a brand new chip system in order to fight terror and prevent fuel smuggling by tracking vehicles. Chips, which will be placed on every vehicle, will be read in gas stations, and all the information associated with those chips will be instantly submitted to the government.

All vehicles are to be put under electronic tracking as a part of the fight against fuel smuggling and terror. An identification unit (label-chip) including the vehicles' plate numbers will be placed on each registered car, Star Daily reported. Fuel pumps will be able to read these labels as well. Thus all the fuel sold to a customer will be monitored, and the system will read which car has purchased gas from which station instantaneously. Thanks to the said system, the fight against fuel smuggling and tax evasion will be maintained with more efficiency, and terrorist attacks will be prevented.

Since the system does not require manual access, vehicles and persons wanted for various crimes such as terror, particularly for suicide bombing, will be detected more easily. For example, when a vehicle wanted for any other crime approaches the gas station, the driver will not be able to buy gas if the vehicle does not have a chip.

When a wanted vehicle's plate number is entered into the system, the last station where the car has bought gas will be seen. Along with security cameras placed at the station, people inside the vehicles will be revealed as well. The National Police Department is a part of the relevant operations conducted by the Revenue Administration.

The Finance Ministry's new road map in the fight against fuel smuggling involves instant sales tracking through plate numbers. Pumps will automatically read the plate numbers; thus the fuel sold will be monitored instantly. In accordance with the action plan which will be conducted as a part of fight against the shadow economy, purchase and sales information will be submitted to the Revenue Administration's IT Center online via new generation payment recording devices.