Smuggling in of Auto Spare Parts, Home Appliances, Cigarettes at $7b p.a.

Smuggling of three groups of goods, namely car spare parts, home appliances and cigarettes, into Iran is worth $7 billion per year, according to deputy industries minister, Mohammad Mehdi Baradaran.
He noted that auto spare parts top the list of counterfeit goods in local market, he put the total volume of smuggling into the country at $12 billion per year, Mehr News Agency reported.
Ali Moayyedi Khorranabadi, the head of the Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Currencies recently put the volume of goods smuggled in and out of Iran at $17-18 billion per annum.
“Outgoing contraband accounts for more than $5.5 billion of the total sum. The figure increased after the reimposition of economic sanctions in the fiscal 2018-19. Moreover, after the government started subsidizing foreign currencies [for import of essential goods], smuggling to the neighboring countries increased significantly,” he was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying.
While successive Iranian governments have subsidized food imports, cheap currency was first given after the steep rise in foreign exchange rates in the spring of 2018 soon after the United States under Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and imposed tough economic sanctions.
Until recently subsidized foreign currencies at the rate of 42,000 rials per dollar were allocated to corn, edible vegetable oils, pharmaceuticals, wheat, oilseeds, barley and soybean meal.
The market rate of the dollar is above 300,000 rials now.
The government of President Ebrahim Raisi recently repealed the subsidy system.