Import of 4 billion cigarettes in 95
Cigarettes, bad or good, there are many consumers in the country and they don’t stop smoking in the streets and public spaces. Although it is prohibited to sell it to people under 18 years old according to the law, but its consumption has been extended to people under 13 years old.
According to Salamat Online, in 2015, more than 4 billion cigarettes were imported into the country; This is despite the fact that our country has been successful in the production of cigarette brands and many yarns are also produced and consumed in the country; Smoking, good or bad, is harmful to health, but efforts to prevent its smuggling have always been one of the main programs of all governments.
From 380 million dollars of smuggled cigarettes to the conversion of foreign brands to domestic production
The amount of smuggled cigarettes imported into the country reached 380 million dollars in 2015, and organizations such as the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade and the anti-trafficking headquarters are trying to organize issues related to cigarettes in the country. While it was supposed to be implemented from March 2015, the installation of color detection on tobacco products; So far, the producers and importers of cigarettes have not been forced to go under the burden of implementing this plan.
In Note 3 of Article 102 of the Fifth Development Plan Law, it is stated that the government is obliged to convert imported cigarettes with the same original brand into domestic production. Perhaps this is the reason for the severe crackdown on smuggled cigarettes in the last two years. Since 2013, the National Tobacco Planning and Monitoring Center has put the implementation of this note on its agenda.
Yesterday, the head of the country’s tobacco planning and monitoring center announced the list of 18 brands of smuggled cigarettes.
Ali Asghar Ramzi said in this regard: “Publishing the list of smuggled cigarettes will make people aware not to buy and consume them due to their harmfulness and intensify the handling of these names and signs of smuggling by the regulatory agencies.”
Smuggling of these cigarettes is significant and in the form of 18 brand names as cigarettes that are definitely considered to be smuggling and it has been notified to the supervisory authorities by the Central Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling to deal legally with them at the market and supply level. more intense than before.
According to the notification of the head of the National Tobacco Planning and Monitoring Center, the list of smuggled cigarettes is as follows: “Marlboro”, “Ben”, “Royal”, “Eros”, “Afir”, “Mikado”, “Senator”, “Kingdom”, “Lamborghini”, “Sir”, “Morad”, “Walden”, “Emerald”, “Miami”, “D&J”, “SX”, “Mac” and “Royal 5” »
Smuggled cigarettes that enter the market without laboratory controls, the percentage of harmful substances is not controlled and they mainly contain tobacco leaves with high plant pesticides. Reputable factories are not allowed to use these tobacco leaves, and they are purchased by unauthorized factories in some countries, including some neighboring countries of Iran, and produce different fake brands of cigarettes, including famous and expensive brands.
Ramzi, the head of the country’s tobacco planning and monitoring center, says in this regard: These types of cigarettes are produced exactly with the same advanced devices of the main factories and are very similar to the original brand, and they are unrecognizable to the consumer, but currently the main criteria for identification Or, cigarettes being smuggled means having a health message and image, and cigarettes that do not have a health image such as the image of lungs or boots are considered to be contraband.
Stone hardware problems on the way to interception code
According to the previous plans, from the beginning of this year, all domestically produced and imported cigarettes were to be equipped with identification and identification, and cigarettes without these two components were not allowed to be sold in the market. Last year, 20 brands and 18 more brands were included in the list of smuggled cigarettes that were warned to avoid buying them.
One of the biggest reasons for the non-implementation of cigarette identification in the country can be attributed to the lack of hardware facilities in domestic and even foreign factories to install tracking codes on cigarettes.
Qasim Soharri, the spokesman of the anti-narcotics headquarters, had previously told Tasnim: One of the main goals of this plan is to combat the entry of cigarettes and smuggled tobacco products into the country, because identifying these products and equipping domestic production and legal importation of these Products can lead to smarter and more effective inspections of monitoring devices in this field.
He also said: “Organizing legal importation, organizing cigarette supply units, intensifying the fight against cigarette smuggling and limiting the transit of cigarettes has caused the volume of cigarette smuggling to increase from 600 million dollars in 2014 to about 380 million dollars in 2015.” be reduced
