Tehran, Iran, September 28
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Over the past six months (since March 20), worth 70 trillion rials ($2.2 billion) of smuggled goods were seized in Iran, according to Qassem Khorshidi, spokesman of Iran’s Anti-Smuggling Headquarters.
That counted for the goods that were seized at the borders, while the smuggled goods that were detained during distribution in the country amounted to one about $0.2 billion, he told the IRIB TV September 27.
During the previous Iranian-calendar year (March 2015 to 2016), 4 to 10 percent of smuggled goods into Iran were seized according to the most pessimistic and optimistic reports respectively, Abdolmajid Ejtehadi, the head of Iran’s Central Task Force for Combat Smuggling of Commodities and Currency, said in the same TV program.
Smuggled goods have turned into a major problem in Iran. Officials have said the value of goods smuggled into Iran equals the country’s oil income.