Members of the Majlis Joint Commission annulled an earlier ruling that very recently allowed import of machinery, raw materials, seeds and fertilizers without obliging importers to follow the normal foreign exchange allocation procedures imposed by the government.
Mehdi Mofateh, spokesperson of the commission, said Wednesday that the ruling was scrapped after Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of Central Bank of Iran, informed the commission about the impact of the move on his forex stabilization plans.
He convinced lawmakers that importing goods in this way would bypass the import order registration system, which in turn would let forex be traded out of CBI oversight, the MP said.
The decision was approved by the commission members a few days ago only to be abandoned on Wednesday at Hemmati's insistence. “After the detailed elaboration by the CBI chief, the previous measure was annulled in its entirety.”
Earlier this week, the industries minister had said the government has approved a measure that allows imports without ‘currency transfer’ for raw materials and spare parts for manufactures. This meant production units could import their needs with their own resources or currency from the open market, a move that apparently was born dead.
Confirming annulment of the Majlis Joint Commission resolution, the CBI chief voiced opposition on Tuesday against the so-called “importing without currency transfer.” “Exporters’ earnings should return to the country because without currency repatriation CBI measures will be disrupted.”
The annulled measure allowed importers of raw material to use their export earnings to import raw materials for their manufacturing units without going through the bloated bureaucracy.
Procedures for most exporters who also import raw material involves exporters repatriating their export earnings via Nima and waiting for months for receiving the forex for importing raw material -- a pattern that has created widespread dissatisfaction among businesses.
Iran’s ease of doing business ranking among 190 economies in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2019 fell by four places to 128th.
