Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 24/Trend/
Iran holds 0.5 percent of global tobacco market, however it ranks second in terms of cigarette smuggling, Mehr News Agency quotes member of Iran's commission on combating respiratory diseases Aboulfazl Jaryani as reporting.
"Iran and Burma have the highest rate of cigarette smuggling in the world," he said.
Iran 's annually cigarette consumption is 60 billion cigarettes, while 42 percent of Iran's cigarette consumption is provided by smuggling market.
He stressed that despite Iran's commitment to international regulations we witnessed reduced tax for imported cigarettes from 40 to 20 percent.
Meanwhile, the assigned tax rate for domestic cigarette factories' products reduced from 20 to 0.5 percent in current solar year (started on March20, 2011).