The government is set to increase the costs of smuggling for smugglers in a series of efforts to combat the ever-growing rate of smuggling in the country, Habibollah Haghoghi, the head of the headquarters for combating the smuggling of goods and foreign exchange, said on Tuesday. Haghighi said the government is studying the implementation of a 44-point plan, under which the government seeks to make the monetary system transparent, organize domestic production, employ various methods to control smuggling, and fix the prices of domestic products. The official made the remarks while visiting Shahid Rajaee Port in the southern province of Hormozgan, IRNA reported. Import statistics released by Iran’s Customs Administration for the first seven months of the current Iranian colander year (March 21–October 22) indicate that imports increased by 72.24 percent in value compared to the same period last year, while smuggled goods accounted for 34 percent of the total imports in the period.
