Approval of Investigation into the Fight Against Smuggling in Parliament

On Wednesday, December 3, Iranian parliament representatives voted with 150 votes in favor, 22 against, and three abstentions to approve a request for an investigation into the process of combating smuggling and examining government policies in dealing with smuggling and the reasons for the ineffectiveness of these policies. According to Mehr News Agency, previously, a number of parliament representatives had submitted a request for investigation into the process of combating smuggling and examining government policies in this regard to the Economic Commission on July 29 of this year. However, the Economic Commission rejected these two requests and referred the matter to the parliament's open session. According to this report, with the parliament's vote, the investigation into the process of combating smuggling must be conducted within a six-month period. Hoshmatollah Falahatpisheh, one of the designers of the investigation into the process of combating smuggling, stated: "Smuggling is the killer of one million jobs per year, and one-third of the country's economy is involved in smuggling." Mr. Falahatpisheh emphasized that the goal of this investigation is not to "catch" anyone but to assist the headquarters (the headquarters for combating smuggling of goods and currency). He added that there is currently no comprehensive program for combating smuggling. He announced that "out of $70 billion in imports, $22 billion is smuggling," and added, "The total budget for combating smuggling is 20 billion tomans, which, according to officials, cannot achieve anything with this budget." He also stated, "90% of smuggled goods collapse on our economy, and only 10% of it is discovered." Asadollah Asgaroladi, a member of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, stated in July of this year regarding smuggling in Iran: "We are witnessing about $15 billion in smuggling in imports and exports, which is beyond the view of all ministries." According to Mehr, Hoshmatollah Falahatpisheh attributed a significant part of the smuggling problem to free and special economic zones, stating that it was supposed to reduce the number of free and special zones by 30%, but unfortunately, it has increased. Earlier, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, stated on November 20 that free zones have somewhat deviated from their mission. Hoshmatollah Falahatpisheh also pointed out that "60% of the docks in Iran are unauthorized," saying, "Such statistics do not exist anywhere in the world." This member of the National Security Commission noted that the Iranian Foreign Minister did not mention the names of "some agencies, currents, and groups that have become accustomed to exploiting sanctions and continue to play the role of continuing sanctions" when discussing the implementation of the second quarter of the JCPOA in this commission. Earlier, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, had identified a government agency as responsible for smuggling and stated: "When you want to produce, a corrupt agency that I do not want to name can bring in smuggled goods and does not allow the country to grow. We must stop this corruption." However, Mr. Rouhani did not explain which agency, institution, or organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran he was referring to. However, some media at that time indicated that Mr. Rouhani was referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In contrast, IRGC officials have denied involvement in smuggling goods into Iran. According to Mehr, Mr. Falahatpisheh pointed out the high costs for official importers and the existence of 22 types of tariffs and duties in imports, stating that in Iran, unlike other countries, they face many costs. Therefore, "an incentive for smuggling is created for importers, but no costs are incurred from smugglers." Hoshmatollah Falahatpisheh described one of the problems for importers as tax arrears on commercial cards, which he said has reached 9 trillion tomans. This member of the National Security Commission announced that in Kermanshah province, the equivalent of 3 trillion tomans of smuggled goods enters Iran through porters, stating: "For every 1 billion tomans of profit for the smuggler, 9 million tomans of profit goes to the porter." The issue of smuggling has been raised in Iran for years. In this regard, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the Minister of Justice, stated in July of this year in a television program: "With the amendment of the anti-smuggling regulations and in the new regulations, smuggled goods have no right to be sold in the country and must be destroyed." This government official also stated that "in the field of smuggling goods and drugs, we are caught with small and low-level defendants, and large smugglers are either outside the country or do not get caught due to the arrest of small defendants."