Smuggling destroys 200,000 jobs in Iran annually: Iranian official

TEHRAN,July 10(MNA) - Smuggling destroys 200,000 job opportunities in Iran annually, the Iranian deputy industry minister Mohammad-Sadeq Mofatteh said on Tuesday. He put the value of goods smuggled in the country at $14 billion annually, saying that each job opportunity will be created through $70,000 investment, IRNA quoted him as saying. More than 10 trillion rials (about $815 million) worth of smuggled goods were seized in Iran in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20. Around 80,000 cases of smuggling were registered at customs nationwide. The value of the seized goods showed 30 percent compared to the year, which ended in March 2012. In October 2012, Iranian Customs Administration Director Abbas Memarnejad said that the smuggling is not confined to fuels. It also includes home appliance and foreign currency. Annually, around $20 billion worth of goods have been smuggled into the country in recent years. The Iranian government has claimed that the smuggled goods will reduce to $14 billion in the current year. The unemployment rate in the country is projected to fall by one percent each year during 2013-2015. A member of Iran's high council of employment Davoud Qaderi said that the council had developed a package of investment plans, worth 1.96 trillion rials (some $160 billion), aimed to create 1.1 million new jobs this year. The unemployment rate in Iran stood at 12.3 percent last year, showing a 1.2 percent fall compared to its preceding year, the statistical center of Iran reported. Some 400,000 people were employed in Iran last year, which ended on March 19. The government announced over 1.6 million job opportunities were created last year, the Mehr News Agency reported on June 12.