Libya plans "smart cards" to stop fuel smuggling

• Gaddafi introduced subsidies on items from fuel to bread and airline tickets to discourage opposition
• The subsidies, together with public salaries take up more than half of the national budget
• Citizens have been subsidised buying fuel and smuggling into Tunisia for resale at higher prices
• With shutdown of oil fields and ports since mid-2013, crude export revenues are drying up and the government is proposing a fuel card system to parliament that will limit the amount of subsidised fuel that can be bought
• Egypt has recently implemented such a fuel card system