The President called the Central Headquarters to Combat the Smuggling of Goods and Currency as a supra-institutional headquarters for monitoring, coordination, warning and follow-up in the field of combatting merchandise smuggling, and while emphasising the role of this headquarters, he said, “If this headquarters can fulfil its role fully and correctly, and fight against the smuggling of goods effectively, without a doubt we will witness the boom in production, creation of employment and the prosperity of knowledge-based companies in the country”.
Speaking on Tuesday in the meeting of the Central Headquarters to Combat the Smuggling of Goods and Currency, Ayatollah Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi emphasised the need for coherence and coordination of all the institutions involved in the fight against goods and currency smuggling, and called the role of the headquarters important in achieving this coordination.
He noted, “In a sense, the most important issue in the fight against smuggling is the issue of coordination. It is very important to strengthen the role of the anti-smuggling headquarters in achieving coherence, and we must work in this direction”.
The President called the reform of the structures that lead to the occurrence of goods smuggling as a focal point in the policy of combatting goods smuggling, and added, “The 13th Administration, as it has been announced many times before, has the will to eliminate the corrupting fields and trends that cause corruption through structural and institutional reforms”.
Dr Raisi emphasised that the fight against smuggling of goods should start from the source, and added, “We must eliminate the economic benefit of smuggling by correcting the faulty structures. When the cost of smuggling increases through strengthening regulatory mechanisms and expanding transparency, the tendency to do so will naturally decrease”.
The President also said that paying attention to the adoption of a preventive approach in the field of combatting goods smuggling, and emphasising on strengthening the monitoring processes in this field, saying, “It is necessary to finalised or amend the systems that are currently active in the field of goods smuggling to move towards the prevention of smuggling instead of dealing with it later”.
Ayatollah Raisi pointed out that the progress of the related systems is not very satisfactory, and added, “Usually, slow progress and stagnation in the completion of projects are attributed to the budget and financing issue, but the reality is that most of the times, the problem is with the contractor and weak supervision”.
In another part of his speech, Dr Raisi described organising border markets as an important priority in the field of combatting smuggling, and noted, “If border markets are organised properly and under standards, we will witness the prosperity of border trade and better livelihoods for border settlers”.
Emphasising the decisive and effective fight against organised smuggling, Ayatollah Raisi said, “In the field of organised smuggling, the first priority is to block financial resources through an effective fight against money laundering, and secondly, it is important to track and monitor related networks. In both stages, we need intelligence and security measures to fight effectively”.
The President further mentioned the improvement of processes and functions after the discovery of smuggled goods and stressed the role of the Organisation for Collection and Sale of State-owned Properties in this field. Mr Raisi added, “Good moves have been started since the beginning of the government’s term in the field of state-owned properties, which should be continued. Smuggled goods should be decided upon as soon as possible after discovery and should not be deposited in warehouses”.
The President called the Central Headquarters to Combat the Smuggling of Goods and Currency as a supra-institutional headquarters for monitoring, coordination, warning and follow-up in the field of combatting merchandise smuggling, and while emphasising the role of this headquarters, he said, “If this headquarters can fulfil its role fully and correctly, and fight against the smuggling of goods effectively, without a doubt we will witness the boom in production, creation of employment and the prosperity of knowledge-based companies in the country”.
At the end of the meeting, Dr Raisi described the importance of promoting domestic goods and increasing public trust in domestic production as another important step in the fight against smuggling, and said, “Smuggling of goods and excessive import is a dagger that goes into the heart of domestic production and employment. If we can increase people’s inclination towards Iranian goods by continuously increasing the quality of domestic products and at the same time cultural, promotional and media work, then naturally, excessive import will be prevented and an effective step will be taken in the fight against the smuggling of goods”.
Source: Presidency of Islamic Republic of Iran
