Tehran, Iran, Dec.30
Trend:
The head of the Iran Customs Mehdi Mirashrafi rejected the rumors of smuggling goods through Iran's customs.
“These rumors are aimed at weakening the government. Smuggling never occurs via official transit routes", Mirashrafi said, Trend reports citing Fars News Agency.
"There might be some violations. Currently, according to regulations, if the difference between numbers of goods which are declared to be imported and the goods which are imported in fact is more than 20 percent, it is considered a smuggling, while previously, it was considered just a violation," he said.
"There have been good efforts in recent years to create transparent systems in customs. Iran customs checkpoints are situated in 200 locations, while there is a 10,000-kilometer border, including the sea borders", he added.
Iran customs is to identify the goods before their entry to the country that would aid the supervision and control over smuggling.
Tehran's Chamber of Commerce has recently announced that the goods worth $20 billion get smuggled into Iran every year. Home appliances, computer equipment and cosmetics are on the top of the list. Meanwhile, Iran's fuel smuggling to other countries has soared.