"11 million liters" of fuel smuggled daily from Iran last year

The head of the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency in Iran says that, based on estimates, an average of 11 million liters of fuel were smuggled out of the country every day last year, and with the measures that were taken, this figure was reduced to eight million liters per day (at the end of) last year.

According to Fars News Agency, Ali Moayedi Khorramabadi said that something called fuel smuggling has persisted in the country for dozens of reasons.

He said that until the price discussion within the country reaches a reasonable level, fuel smuggling is likely to occur at any moment.

The value of the dollar against the Iranian rial has soared from 4,700 tomans to 13,000 tomans since the beginning of last year, causing a widening gap in the price of gasoline and other fuels inside and outside the country.

According to a recent report published by the International Energy Agency on gasoline prices in the world, Iran offers the cheapest gasoline in the world, which is 6 to 10 times cheaper than neighboring countries, an issue that has been an incentive for fuel smuggling to neighbors, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Iranian officials provide conflicting statistics on the amount of fuel smuggling. While last summer, the government information website announced in a short clip that the amount of fuel smuggling out of Iran was 20 to 40 million liters per day, a spokesman for the Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency in December of that year put the daily figure for fuel smuggling out of Iran at 11.5 million liters.

This is despite the fact that, according to Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, the amount of gasoline and diesel smuggling in Iran cannot be "more than four or five million liters per day."

Source: Radio Farda