Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.4
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Some 33,000 litres of smuggled diesel fuel have been seized in Khuzestan province, southwest of Iran, IRIB reported on December 4.
The smuggled fuel has been offloaded during the past three days from three vessels.
The smuggled consignments had been targeted to be transported to the Persian Gulf littoral states. Ten people have been arrested in this respect.
After a huge decrease in smuggled fuel from Iran in 2011 because of cutting offered subsides in this field, fuel smuggling revived during the last few months due to the fall in the national currency's value.
The Iranian government cut a part of the fuel subsidy in late 2010 raising prices significantly which led to a decrease in fuel smuggling from 10 million litres in 2008 to three million litres per day in early 2011, according to official statistics.