Asgar Oladi: We are witnessing $15 billion in smuggling

Asadollah Asgar Oladi, a member of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, stated regarding smuggling in Iran: "Alongside foreign trade, we are witnessing about $15 billion in smuggling in imports and exports, which is outside the view of all ministries." The Chamber of Commerce member added on Tuesday: "I urge the President to announce to all institutions that they should move in one direction for the country's foreign trade... We have achieved 60 to 70 percent success in the post-JCPOA era and are on the path of progress." Previously, Qasem Khoshidi, spokesman for the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency, also stated that a significant part of this headquarters' activities is focused on borders and entry points, saying: "99 percent of our capacity in discovering smuggled goods has been in the entry points and borders, and we have allocated only one percent of our capacity for combating at the supply level. In the first six months of this year, the total value of smuggling discoveries was 7,000 billion tomans, of which only 70 billion relates to the supply level, indicating this matter." Islamic Republic officials have repeatedly spoken about billion-dollar smuggling in Iran and the inability of the government and state institutions to combat it. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, recently stated that there is a bottleneck in the resistant economy sector, which is smuggling, saying: "Smuggling in our country destroys the resistant economy like a parasite. Currently, about $20 billion in smuggling enters the country annually, which does not allow for a resistant economy to take shape." Majid Mohammadi, a sociologist and analyst at Radio Farda, commented on organized smuggling in Iran, stating: "A Speaker of Parliament (Mahdi Karroubi) and a President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) have explicitly spoken about the illegal docks of the IRGC for smuggling goods into the country, and these statements have had no effect on stopping the economic activities of the IRGC in smuggling imports and exports." The term "resistant economy" was introduced by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in September 2010 during a meeting with Iranian employers, urging them to utilize the capacities of such an economy to counter the "system of domination," as he put it. Ali Larijani continued: "No factory can compete with that. The problems we are facing in the country are largely related to smuggling, and its diversity has also increased." Majid Mohammadi reiterated that statements from high-ranking officials have not halted the economic activities of the IRGC in smuggling. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, also stated: "When you want to produce, a corrupt entity that I do not want to name can import smuggled goods, preventing the country from growing. Corruption must be stopped, and our customs system must improve."