More than $17 billion worth of various goods, including home appliances, cosmetics, mobile phones and cigarettes, are smuggled into the country every year, head of the Central Taskforce to Combat the Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Currency, Habibollah Haghighi was quoted as saying by ISNA. He also noted that fuel is the top commodity smuggled out of the country, with over 5 million liters of fuel illegally exported to neighboring countries on a daily basis. He mentioned the absence of proper regulations, import bans on certain products as well as high import tariffs as major causes of illegal imports.