TEHRAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran has boosted the production of cigarette by 60 percent in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year starting March 2017, Financial Tribune daily reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, imports of cigarette fell 75 percent and smuggling declined 48 percent compared to the same period last year, the daily said, citing Ali Asghar Ramzi, head of Iran's Tobacco Planning and Supervision Center.
"Iran's 12 cigarette factories produced 11 billion cigarettes in the past three months, up by 60 percent year-on-year. Besides, the imports of 700 million cigarettes in the three-month period showed a 75 percent decrease compared to first quarter of last year," Ramzi was quoted as saying.
The official put the number of smuggled cigarettes into the country in the first quarter of the year at 2.15 billion.
"Cigarette imports reduced to 4 billion last year compared with 16.4 billion in the fiscal March 2015 to March 2016 thanks to bringing additional production capacity on stream," he said, adding that "the imports are predicted to be even cut by 50 percent in the current Iranian year to 2 billion."
According to the report, domestic production of cigarettes hit 45 billion in the past Iranian year, about 15 billion more than the year before.
Plans are underway to increase the local production of cigarettes to 50 billion this year, which is 5 billion fewer than Iran's annual consumption.
