During the year ending in March 2017, the value of imported handsets into the country was $119 million, which reached $3.23 billion in the next year; the increase translates into a 172% jump in government revenue—from $21.4 million to $58.3 million After the implementation of the Registry Scheme, smuggled phones were cut off from the country’s network. Statistics show that so far, a total of 210,773 phones have been disconnected.

As part of the President Hassan Rouhani administration’s push to curb mobile phone’s smuggling, the Registry Scheme went into full swing as of April 21. Following the move, government revenue from customs duty and imports tax levied on cellphones hiked 2.7 times.

During the year ending in March 2017, the value of imported handsets into the country was 5 trillion rials ($119 million), which reached 136 trillion rials ($3.23 billion) in the next year; the increase translates into a 172% jump in government revenue—from 900 billion rials ($21.4 million) to 2.45 trillion rials ($58.3 million).

The numbers were reported by Hamidreza Dehqaninia, the ICT head at the Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange, in an interview with Students News Network.

Aimed at reining in cellphone smuggling, the ICT Ministry, Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, Communications Regulatory Authority and the Industries Ministry introduced the Cellphone Registry Scheme that bars local operators from offering services to contraband phones. / Financial tribune /