Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.27/ Trend F.Karimov/
Some 4.8 trillion rials (about $190 million based on the U.S. dollar official exchange rate of 24,800 rials) worth of goods and Forex smuggling cases has been exposed in Iran, the Mehr News Agency quoted deputy director of the Iranian organisation for fighting goods and Forex smuggling, Mehdi Ayyoubi, as saying.
The violators had imported goods using the official exchange rate and sold them based on the street rate which is currently 31,350 rials, he added.
Some 23,000 files have been opened so far in this regard of which 10,000 have been investigated, he said.
In July, IRNA quoted Iranian deputy industry minister Mohammad-Sadeq Mofatteh as saying that smuggling in Iran ruins 200,000 job opportunities annually.
He put the annual cost of smuggling of goods into the country at $14 billion, saying that each job opportunity will be created through a $70,000 investment.
In October 2012, Iranian Customs Administration Director Abbas Memarnejad said the smuggling is not confined to fuels. It also includes home appliances and foreign currency.
Former Iranian industry, mine, and trade minister Mehdi Ghazanfari has said that some $12 billion worth of luxury goods is imported legally per year.
Annually, around $20 billion worth of goods have been smuggled into the country in recent years. The Iranian government has claimed that the smuggled goods will be reduced to $14 billion in the current year.