Fuel relief: every working pump goes on the system, SMS tokens where there is no internet

Updated 19 September, 11:30pm PKT with Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar's directives, SMS redemption for areas with no internet, and the SBP payment position.

The Prime Minister's Office revised the fuel relief scheme on Saturday, 19 September 2026. The change that matters most to a rider in Lahore or Karachi is small in wording and large in practice: the token no longer forces a five-litre purchase.

Dawn reports that where each token previously entitled the holder to five litres of fuel, the token now carries a flat Rs 500 discount, and an eligible citizen can take a maximum concession of Rs 2,000 a month through multiple redemptions. The underlying discount is Rs 100 a litre, with two- and three-wheelers capped at 20 litres a month and cars up to 800cc capped at 30 litres a month, the car quota split into three tokens of 10 litres each.

Saturday evening: three more changes

Dar chaired a review of the rollout on Saturday and ordered three things.

1. Every operational fuel station goes on the system. Dar directed that all working stations be brought onto the platform, and that permanently closed outlets and diesel-only pumps be struck off it. The complaint through the week was riders arriving at a pump that could not process a token.
2. SMS redemption where there is no internet. The committee approved token redemption by SMS at stations in areas without connectivity. Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the provinces have been told to send in lists of those stations.
3. Payments are current. The State Bank told the meeting that every claim received in the past three days has been settled in full, with same-day processing. Station owners withholding service over unpaid claims no longer have that reason.

The meeting was told that an overwhelming majority of stations nationwide are now live on the system.

How to register: SMS 9771, now free

Federal Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima announced the earlier revisions at a press conference on 19 September. Three things changed.

1. The five-litre minimum is gone. The Rs 500 weekly discount applies even on a purchase of less than five litres.
2. Registration by SMS is now free. You are no longer charged for the message.
3. Eligibility widened. All motorcycles and three-wheelers registered on or after 1 January 2006 now qualify, which the Prime Minister's 18 September directive sets as a 20-year age limit.

To register, send your 13-digit CNIC number, your province abbreviation and your vehicle registration details to 9771. CNIC digits only, no dashes.

Take-up so far

As of the announcement, 1,493,848 fuel tokens had been issued and 655,067 citizens had already taken fuel under the scheme. Two- and three-wheelers account for 91.6 percent of registrations, which is the scheme working roughly as designed: the money is reaching bikes and rickshaws rather than cars.

Why the minimum mattered

Petrol is Rs 389.14 a litre from midnight on 19 September, after OGRA cut it by Rs 1.65. Five litres in one go is Rs 1,945.70. That is more than many riders put in a tank at a time, and a rider who could only spare Rs 300 or Rs 500 was walking away from the token. Removing the minimum means the discount now attaches to the purchase the rider was going to make anyway.

Check the current pump price on our petrol price page and work out what a tank costs you with the fuel cost calculator.

Who qualifies

The scheme covers motorcycles, rickshaws, Qingqi rickshaws and three-wheelers registered on or after 1 January 2006. Cars with engines up to 800cc are covered on the same Rs 100 a litre basis, with the larger 30-litre monthly quota.

What it is worth in rupees

For a bike or rickshaw, the full 20-litre monthly quota at Rs 100 a litre is Rs 2,000. Twenty litres of petrol at Rs 389.14 costs Rs 7,782.80, so the relief is a little over a quarter of the monthly fuel bill for a rider who uses exactly the quota.

For an 800cc car, 30 litres is Rs 3,000 of relief against Rs 11,674.20 of petrol, again around a quarter, and only on the first 30 litres. A Mehran-class car doing 250 km a week will burn more than 30 litres in a month, so the subsidy covers roughly the first week and a half.

The politics around it

Jamaat-e-Islami has rejected the scheme as insufficient and its long march leaves Karachi on 20 September demanding the petroleum levy be abolished outright. Dawn puts the levy at Rs 114 a litre on petrol, against Rs 100 a litre of relief that reaches only small vehicles and only up to a monthly cap. That gap is the argument.

Where to register in person

Parliamentarians and political teams are running facilitation camps across the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad to help people register and collect tokens. There is no new deadline attached to the revision; the change is to the token rules, not to enrolment.

One caution worth stating plainly: several unofficial sites are advertising registration for this scheme and asking for CNIC and vehicle details. Use 9771, the official camps and the government's own channels. No legitimate part of this scheme charges a fee to register, and the SMS itself is now free.

The SIM you register from should be on your own CNIC. If you are not sure what is registered to yours, check it first: how to check SIMs on your CNIC.