The role of smuggling in the development of the border town of Baneh

Customs smuggling involves the movement of goods along the customs border in a covert manner in order to evade customs control. The issue of smuggling in our country is very significant due to the special geographical conditions for the entry and exit of goods and the lack of stable conditions in neighboring countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the role of smuggling in the development of the border town of Baneh, in the western part of Kurdistan province and bordering Iraq. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical method. Residents of the border town of Baneh and experts and officials in the field of smuggling and urban planning were the statistical population of this study. The data collection method was performed using library studies, field observations, interviews and questionnaire distribution. In this research, ARC GIS software has been used to draw maps and SPSS and Exeel software have been used to describe statistical information and questionnaires. In statistical analysis, Friedman test and T-test were used by comparing the means in the study area. Mick Mac software has been used to determine the most important factors affecting the smuggling of goods. The results showed that in shaping the current situation of urban development in Baneh, smuggling has been effective and has had relatively positive effects on the physical development of Baneh. . From the citizens’ point of view, smuggling of goods had the greatest impact on economic and physical-environmental dimensions with an average rank of 3.27% and 2.36% and had a moderate impact on political-institutional and social-cultural dimensions with an average of 2.20 and 2.17 in Baneh, respectively. In addition to the geographical location of the region, government intervention in the supply and demand and tariffs of Berkala, high profitability of smuggling and low quality of domestic products and its high price compared to similar foreign products, have the greatest impact on smuggled goods in Baneh.