The government’s new decision to ease restrictions and issue legal permits for import of Marlboro cigarettes could cost smugglers’ 5-trillion-rial (about $150 million at market rate) in illegal profit, Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the deputy minister of industries, mine, and agriculture said on Thursday, SHATA reported. The official told the news agency that “importing cigarettes is not illegal and the industry ministry has acted and will act upon regulations.”Cigarette is among the goods that has widely been imported illegally during the past years due to its high profit rate and the ban on legal import of the product, Khosrotaj noted. Issuing import permits for cigarette will definitely curtail its smuggling, he concluded.
