NCRI – In an interview with regime’s IRIB news agency, Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, Minister of industry in Rouhani’s government, has said that most of the country’s unemployed are among young and educated people.
He pointed to banks, tax system, social security, and above all trafficking of contraband goods as the country’s main barriers of production and employment, saying “although according to a report by the task force responsible for combating smuggling of commodities and currency, the amount of contraband in the country is decreasing, but that’s still too much.”
Nematzadeh maintained that between three to four billion dollars of contraband goods enter the country each year through dhows commuting in country’s southern waters.
Nonetheless, the Minister of industry confessed that the most amount of contraband are imported into Iran through the country’s entry points, including the official ones. “Definitely a large amount of commodities are smuggled into the country through free economic zones”, he said.
Minister of industry called for combating against trafficking of contraband goods in these areas, but he didn’t explain how contraband coming through country’s official entry points should be dealt with.
Nonetheless, he pointed to the Revolutionary Guards as the main trafficker of contraband goods in Iran, as all the country’s entry points, including airports, water and land borders are controlled by the armed forces, particularly the Revolutionary Guards, which is among the main owners of country’s wealthiest foundations and exclusive entities, including Khatam-al Anbia headquarters, all of which are operating under the supervision of the regime’s leader Ali Khamenei.
More than 40 percent of Iran’s economy is in the hands of foundations and entities who are exempt from paying taxes, relying on power rent to exclusively win all national and construction projects.
