Approximately $25 Billion Worth of Smuggled Goods Enter Iran

Habibollah Haghighi, head of the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency, announced that the value of smuggled goods entering Iran in the year 1392 (2013) was between $20 to $25 billion, which is about half the value of goods officially imported into Iran last year. According to a report from Fars News Agency on February 21, Haghighi stated that $50 billion worth of goods were officially imported into Iran last year. He added, 'While the value of smuggled goods was between $20 to $25 billion.' According to Haghighi, Iran's development budget last year was over $30 billion. The head of the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency previously mentioned on January 21 that the 'volume of $20 billion in smuggled goods in the year 1392' was twice the total development budget of the country. In another part of his remarks on Thursday, Haghighi identified fuel smuggling as one of the issues that need necessary actions. Afshin Rezaei, the governor of Qasr-e Shirin, previously stated on August 27 that to prevent smuggling, the selling price of each liter of gasoline to vehicles entering Iraq from this region has been set at 3,500 tomans based on the new pricing of the fuel working group. The head of the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency also mentioned that 24 agencies are members of this headquarters. According to Haghighi, the judiciary, military and law enforcement forces, and other agencies are responsible for planning, policymaking, and oversight in this headquarters. In recent years, officials of the Islamic Republic have reported the growth of smuggling into Iran despite measures taken to prevent it. Over the years, several Iranian executive officials have criticized organized smuggling in the country and have spoken about ports and entry points of goods that are beyond government control. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, stated in July 2011 that several agencies and organizations are importing goods through illegal ports and borders and must be stopped. Just one day after Ahmadinejad's criticism of some agencies regarding 'illegal imports' from certain border points and unauthorized ports, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard emphasized that the agency under his command 'like other military agencies, has military ports at its disposal but no commercial transactions are conducted there.'