Cigarette Smuggling Up 78%

EghtesadOnline: A total of 6.24 billion cigarettes were smuggled into Iran during the first quarter of the current year (March 20-June 20), indicating a 78.3% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year.

News ID: ۷۵۰۷۳۵

18 August 2020

An estimated 16.2 billion cigarettes were smoked during the period, registering no significant year-on-year change.

Cigarette exports stood at 60 million during the period, Fars News Agency reported.

Import of cigarettes to Iran has been banned for a long time now.

A total of 54.8 billion cigarettes were produced in the last fiscal year (March 2019-20), indicating a 13.7% growth compared with the year before.

Cigarette exports saw a 2.7% increase to stand at 154 million while the ban on imports remained in effect.

“Jordan and Austria made to the list of Iran’s export destinations for cigarettes for the first time in the year ending March 2020,” said Ataollah Maroufkhani, the head of Industries, Mining and Trade Ministry’s affiliate, the Iranian Tobacco Planning and Supervision Center.

The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade estimates that 10.03 billion cigarettes were smuggled into Iran in the last fiscal year, given the 65 billion cigarettes that were smoked in the country during the period, which registered a year-on-year decline of 39.2%.

Tobacco exports stood at 2,374 tons, posting a surge of 161.3% while 21 cigarette and 39 tobacco factories were active last year compared with 20 cigarette and 33 operational tobacco factories in the year before, ISNA reported.

The government earned 17,023 billion rials ($76 million) from tax on cigarette consumption in the year ending March 2020, which indicates a 50% rise compared with last year.

Tax on cigarette sales increased by 22.8% to reach 7,868 billion rials ($35 million) last year compared with 6,406 billion rials ($28 million) in the fiscal 2018-19.