The annual sale of 20 billion smuggled cigarettes in the country

The head of the Association of Tobacco Manufacturers said: According to estimates, between 15 and 20 billion smuggled cigarettes enter the country every year.

According to the Mehr News Agency, according to the officials of the Ministry of Security, “auto spare parts”, “household goods”, “cosmetics”, “clothes” and “tobacco” are the top five priorities of this ministry in relation to the plans to fight against smuggling of goods in the country. are; Based on this, dealing with smuggled and counterfeit goods has entered a new phase since June of last year, focusing on the tobacco market.

Although the actual amount of cigarette smuggling is not known; But from the difference between production and consumption, it is possible to estimate the amount of smuggling of this product into the country, based on this and assuming the consumption of 80 billion cigarettes and the production of 68 billion cigarettes in the country, the smuggling of cigarettes last year increased to more than 10 It reaches a billion threads. Based on this, about 80-85% of the tobacco market is in the hands of domestic brands and legal production, and 15-20% is in the hands of smuggling. With this account, the amount of smuggled and counterfeit products in the tobacco product group is very high.

In this regard, Mohammad Mehdi Baradaran, Deputy Minister of Public Industries, recently said: the sale of all types of tobacco products in all wholesale and retail distribution units should be done with the product ID; Also, with the implementation of the product identification plan, we should not witness the presence of smuggled goods in the market; Because based on the ID of the adhesive product, dealings with suppliers of smuggled tobacco products in the market will be facilitated.

The market is full of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco, fake and fake!

In the same context, Mohammad Reza Tajdar, the head of the Association of Manufacturers, Exporters and Importers of Tobacco Products, said in a conversation with Mehr reporter: About a month ago, the Ministry of Information, with the cooperation of the police force, took a significant step in dealing with a number of tobacco product smuggling networks. However, since that date, no monitoring and dealing with the supply of smuggled tobacco products, as well as with the main center of supply of smuggled tobacco products in the provinces, has been observed, which is why the market is currently full of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco.

Problems of manufacturers of tobacco products

Regarding the production of tobacco products in the country, Tajdar said: the production conditions are due to the many problems of the producers in confirming the order registration of raw materials, the approval of the cottages for the clearance of raw materials, etc. in the ministry of security, to the long process of allocating and providing currency from the central bank, as well as red routes. Clearance of raw materials, virtual experts, etc. at the customs has greatly slowed down the production of tobacco in the country and at the same time has increased the production costs.

He continued: The increase in the amount of taxes received from domestic producers in the form of several laws, including the annual budget law, the value-added law and the 5-year plan law, has greatly increased the rate of domestic production compared to the surrounding countries and has given the market to smugglers.

Annual sale of 20 billion cigarettes and 5000 tons of smuggled tobacco in the country

In the end, the head of the Tobacco Association expressed hope that the policymakers in this field will ease the conditions for the production of tobacco products in the country and said: According to the estimates made by the Tobacco Association, between 15 and 20 billion cigarettes and more than 5,000 tons of tobacco are smuggled annually. And it is forged.

According to Mehr’s report, according to the Consumers and Producers Support Organization, last year, more than 5,700 suspected cases of smuggling were filed at the supply level worth more than 9,000 billion Tomans, which in terms of the number of cases, nearly 37% It is related to tobacco products.

On the other hand, some studies show that in terms of value, only 3-8% of the total amount of smuggled cigarettes are seized and the rest is easily distributed and consumed inside the country. However, the implementation of the plan to combat cigarette smuggling at the supply level by the Ministry of Security, which has been started with the participation of other responsible institutions, can reduce the import of smuggled tobacco into the country.

Source: Mehr news agency