TEHRAN, Iran, July 6
Trend:
Iran's measures to combat smuggling of mobile phones by launching registration system have been successful, said the head of Iran's Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange.
"Due to the government actions regarding registration of mobile phones, all the processes related to import of devices from customs release to sale have been monitored," said Ali Moayedi Khoramabadi, Trend reports citing IRNA.
Iran has launched a national scheme to curb the growing market for smuggled mobile phones. Under the scheme, mobile phone users in the country need to register their devices in the country’s telecommunications user database. It has been estimated that 12.5 million mobile phone devices were smuggled into the country in 2018 depriving the government of $350 million in tax revenues.
Iran's Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange aims to identify smuggled goods that include other items such as medicines, clothing and home appliances, by online registration.
"Another smuggled product is cigarettes, that can be differentiated from registered goods by identification codes. The smuggled cigarettes, medicines and pharmaceutical products will cause more damage to people's health, so the identification codes will help to check the quality," Moayedi Khoramabadi said.
"Any imported item should go under health inspections and be approved by the Health Ministry; otherwise, they will be destroyed," he added.