Azerbaijan, Baku, Jul.9/ Trend F.Karimov/
Smuggling in Iran ruins 200,000 job opportunities in Iran annually, IRNA quoted Iranian deputy industry minister Mohammad-Sadeq Mofatteh as saying.
He put the annual smuggling of goods in the country at $14 billion, saying that each job opportunity will be created through a $70,000 investment.
More than 10 trillion rials (about $815 million) worth of smuggled goods were seized in Iran in the past Iranian calendar year ended on March 20.
Around 80,000 cases of smuggling were registered at customs nationwide.
The value of the seized goods showed a 30 per cent increase 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 appliances and foreign currency.
Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari announced that some $12 billion worth of luxury goods are imported legally per year.
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.
According to analysts, even if Iran succeeds in stopping legal imports of so-called luxury goods, it will face two serious problems. The first will be the psychological effect on the market and the sharp rise in prices of some of the goods such as computers, cell phones and clothing which have been banned from being imported and the second will be the rise in smuggling such goods.
In April, Deputy Labour Minister Mohammad Taghi Hosseini said international sanctions imposed on Iran have affected working conditions in the country. However due to proper management there have been no serious problems as yet.
Hosseini said that conditions for work in Iran are good and the support system for workers is well developed.
"We have an active Decent Work Country Programme currently being implemented," he said.
"Social security and welfare cover all workers including those working temporarily. We use a three-sided mechanism which is one of the internationally approved standards. The government is not the only one which decides on the salary of the workers, but the employers and employees as well," he said.
The unemployment rate in the country is projected to fall by one per cent each year during 2013-2015.
A member of Iran's high council of employment Davoud Qaderi said the council has developed a package of investment plans worth 1.96 trillion rials, some $160 billion aimed at creating 1.1 million new jobs this year.
The unemployment rate in Iran stood at 12.3 per cent last year showing a 1.2 per cent fall compared to its preceding year, the statistical centre 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 during that year, the Mehr News Agency reported on June 12.
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