The Deputy Minister of Oil and CEO of NIORDC said about the need to block the bases of smuggling of petroleum products:Lack of continuous monitoring and supervision of the responsible agencies intensifies the entry of subsidized products into the smuggling market.

TEHRAN(NIORDC),Jalil Salari said in the second meeting of the working group for combating smuggling of petroleum products: "Considering that the price of petroleum products in domestic supply is a duty and a subsidy that can lead to a diversion of products."
Salari added: "Some products have several applications that can exacerbate the phenomenon of smuggling following price differences and transfer to markets outside of defined uses."

He said: "During the past years, licenses were issued in the Ministry of Industry, based on which companies in the field of distillation, cutting of petroleum products and blending were formed." At that time, monitoring and standardization considerations in accordance with the basic needs defined for the target markets were not considered and the price difference of mandatory products inside and outside the country facilitated the development of smuggling and led to the events that we are witnessing today.
According to Salari, we are currently facing challenges in the field of law and executive processes that need to be reformed, otherwise it will be difficult to control and monitor the supply of fuel and oil derivatives.

The Deputy Minister of Oil for Refining and Distribution Affairs said: "Today, the refining industry produces the main products that have specific applications, but there are also special products that are concentrated and directed to the fuel derivatives sector." Today, sometimes these products are pushed to the market, which has a significant deviation from the main applications.

Private sector practices for tax evasion

Referring to the factors aggravating the conditions for the growth of the phenomenon of smuggling of products, he added: "In the petrochemical field, the mission is based on completing the value chain, but unfortunately it is sometimes observed that products are integrated and semi-integrated instead of profit-oriented and fuel-based." This process has created many problems and challenges for customs and the standard organization.

The Deputy Minister and CEO of NIORDC countinued: "The same thing is happening in the downstream sectors whose products have specific applications." It should be acknowledged that if these solvents are used in other industries under other headings and methods, they will intensify the phenomenon of trafficking and facilitate the exit of subsidized products from its main path.

Salari emphasized: "But these challenges can be easily resolved and assigned in the shortest time with the efforts, supervision and control of the responsible agencies." In this regard, the responsible agencies, including the Ministries of Oil, Industry, Mines and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Organization for Standardization, the Exchange Organization, Customs and other agencies, should play a more accurate role in monitoring and controlling their duties.


The nessecity of supervision from the bases of production to the consumer market

The Deputy Minister of Oil for Refining and Distribution Affairs stated: The first step that needs to be taken is to start organizing and supervising the main producers, in other words, monitoring the production of the key and reaching the consumer markets. To expedite the closure of smuggling routes.

Pointing out that there are sections among the major consumers that should be transparent in terms of financial relations, Salari said: "In the field of power plants, there have been cases where their connection to the system has been incomplete, which seems necessary." "For control and monitoring." In the field of measurement, exchanges and consumption in the mentioned units should be intensified.
According to him, this challenge is still present in the major consumers. Some of these challenges are related to the need to connect collections to this system and to control and monitor them. Another part is to improve the process and financial relations, and if this happens, the problems that occur in the way of transfer and transfer will no longer exist externally, while the other part is related to infrastructure.

Line and rail network development policy will be revived

Salari added: "If we transfer the network and transmission and distribution system, most of which is done by land, to the development of the network of pipelines and railways, we can provide significant monitoring and control capabilities."
He said: "In the border route and neighboring countries, if the policy of construction of lines and rail development is done, part of the export of products that is done through this channel can be more easily monitored and created by creating and developing a network of lines." In this way, a large number of tankers crossing the border will be controlled.
The Deputy Minister of Oil for Refining and Distribution Affairs, stating that this issue is one of the programs on the agenda of the National Refining and Distribution Company, said: "Some of these programs have been compiled and summarized and are currently entitled "Organizing the tracking codes of hydrocarbon units" and has been sent to the working group of the Central Headquarters for Combating Commodity and Currency Smuggling, which, if approved and notified, could facilitate the nature determination procedure and reduce the existing challenges.

He further emphasized the seriousness of finding the reasons for violations, especially in relation to the evaluation and correctness of the applicants" performance, the irreplaceable role of the responsible agencies and the need to continuously monitor the performance of the responsible agencies in determining the subsidized fuel quota. It called for the development of procedures, regulations and executive bylaws in order to prevent off-grid supply and to combat the smuggling of petroleum products.
It is worth mentioning that last week, the second meeting of the working group of Article 4 of the Law on Combating Commodity and Currency Smuggling was held in the presence of the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company and other members of this working group in Ghadir building of the National Refining and Distribution Company.