TEHRAN, Dec 4: Iran’s intelligence service has busted a massive network smuggling subsidised local fuel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Iran newspaper reported on Thursday.

The paper said the operation was a major boost to efforts to rein in Iran’s huge petrol consumption, which in the northeastern province of Khorassan halved to one million litres a day after the smuggling operation was smashed.

It said a number of service stations were implicated in the crime, but gave no details on who headed the ring and moreover on how so much fuel managed to get across the heavily-policed border.

In Iran, a litre of petrol costs just 650 rials (eight cents), against around a dollar in Pakistan and 60 cents in Afghanistan. But the fuel is heavily subsidised, and billions of dollars go into fuel subsidies.—AFP