Export companies have met almost 70% of their forex repatriation commitment, head Trade Promotion Organization of Iran said.
“From April 2018 to March 2021, exporters brought back €43.5 billion,” Hamid Zadboum was quoted as saying by the TPO public relations website. The amount improved by 2% since forex repatriation became mandatory in the spring of 2018.
Export income to be repatriated was €70.3 billion for goods taken out from April 2018 to Oct 2020. As per rules, export firms have four months to return their foreign income.
“Considering discounts, exporters were supposed to return €60.3 billion,” Zadboum said. “With the new measure taken to ease repatriation, the process is expected to gain momentum.”
Earlier in the month, the TPO announced new rules for export income repatriation. The rules appear less stringent for the manner of repatriations and timelines.
Offering export proceeds at the secondary foreign exchange market, known as Nima, is one of the new options and the controversial rule demanding some exporters to only sell forex via Nima has been revoked. Nima is a trade platform affiliated to the CBI where exporters sell forex to importers in the form of hawala.
Exporters can now meet their export repatriation commitments through other methods that include using their overseas income to import for themselves or a third party. In addition, they also can sell their forex income in hard currency to banks and exchange shops
The exemption from selling currency at Nima excludes exporters of petrochemicals, steel and petroleum products as they must sell a portion of their forex at Nima while also having access to other repatriation channels.
To address exporters’ concerns about overvaluation of their goods by the customs authority and the cost of money transfers, they need to bring back 90% of the value mentioned in their customs documents. The 10% discount is to offset the cost of transferring the money home, Zadboum said.
As per previous rules announced by the Central Bank of Iran, non-oil exporters had to bring back at least 80% of their earnings in “foreign exchange hawala” and 20% in hard currency.
The new regulations are more flexible regarding timelines. In the past all exporters had four months to return the earnings starting from the date the export permit is issued by the customs office. However, that has been extended for some goods designated by the Industries Ministry.
