Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran produced 36.2 billion cigarettes during the first ten months of the current fiscal year (March 20, 2016-Jan. 20), Ali Asghar Ramzi, head of Iran’s Center for Tobacco Planning and Supervision, said.
The output of Iran’s cigarette producing companies indicates a 53 percent increase compared to Iran's cigarettes production during the same period of the preceding year, Ramzi said, ISNA news agency reported Feb. 4.
He forecasted that Iran’s cigarette output would reach 45 billion during the current fiscal year (to end on March 2017), which is 15 billion more in comparison to the last fiscal year (ended March 2016).
The Iranian administration seriously follows a plan to domestically produce foreign cigarette brands, in order to cut the imports, Ramzi said.
Iran imported 3.7 billion cigarettes in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, indicating a huge fall by 70 percent compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Increased tax for imported tobacco products as well as launching domestic cigarette production units are the main reasons behind the import fall, according to Ramzi.
About 55 billion cigarettes are smoked in Iran annually.