Iran forms special committee to curb fuel smuggling
Iran has formed a special committee to curb fuel smuggling, Fars news agency quoted National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Managing Director Mostafa Kashkouli as saying.
Fuel smuggling at border areas is decreasing, he noted. The committee is tasked with preventing illegal exports of fuel, he added.
On March 3, Mehr news agency quoted Iran's National Police Chief Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam as saying that some $6.5 million worth of fuels smuggled into Iran per day.
More than four million liters of smuggled fuel were discovered and seized in southeastern part of Iran during the first eleven months of the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, IRNA reported.
The smuggled fuels included gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. The amount of seized fuels was 40 percent higher compared with the same period in the previous year.
After a huge decrease in smuggled fuel from Iran in 2011 because of cutting offered subsides in this field, fuel smuggling revived again during last few months due to the fall in the national currency's value.
The Iranian government cut a part of fuel subsides in late 2010, raising prices significantly which led to a decrease in fuel smuggling from 10 million liters in 2008 to three million liters per day in early 2011, according to official statistics.
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