Mostafa Pourdehghan , a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) Industry and Mining Commission, stated on Sunday, March 9, that the unrestricted availability of smuggled goods in the market proves this policy to be unsuccessful and in need of revision.
According to the state-run ILNA news agency, Pourdehghan criticized the current market situation, stating: “Smuggled household appliances are freely sold while official imports are banned. This situation has led to capital outflow and has made monitoring the quality and pricing of goods more difficult.”
Pourdehghan warned that support for domestic production should not be permanent, and if this trend is not corrected, the Majlis will reconsider the import ban policy.
He also mentioned the possibility of revising the import ban on household appliances, saying: “The Majlis’s Industry Commission has emphasized in its meetings with domestic manufacturers that this support cannot last indefinitely. If this policy (the import ban policy) is not adjusted, changes will definitely be made.”
Referring to closed-door parliamentary sessions with regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, he stated: “Majlis members have explicitly declared that the smuggling issue must be resolved once and for all, as its consequences on the country’s economy, as well as public health and security, are extensive and damaging.”
Pourdehghan criticized the household appliance import ban, emphasizing that such prohibitions are uncommon worldwide and should, at most, be temporary.
Restrictions and bans on the import and sale of foreign brands in the Iranian market, imposed under the pretext of “supporting domestic production,” have not strengthened local manufacturing due to the impact of other policies, including monetary and financial regulations. Instead, they have led to a decline in the quality of domestic products while increasing the smuggling of foreign goods into the country.
In September 2021, Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, ordered a ban on household appliance imports, further enforcing individual decisions that have collectively burdened the economy and pushed the people into financial distress.
This directive, which was issued at Khamenei’s request, was enforced after foreign currency restrictions led the Supreme Economic Coordination Council to ban household appliance imports from 2018 until early 2022. When the possibility of unfreezing Iran’s blocked funds in South Korea arose, “a group of home appliance manufacturers” urged the supreme leader of the Iranian regime to support them against the potential “resumption of imports” of certain South Korean appliance brands.
