The Trade Promotion Organization of Iran will suspend commercial ID cards of 350 exporters who repatriated less than 70% of their earnings, the TPO head said.
Last month, the TPO gave exporters until Sep.21 to fulfill their export earnings commitments otherwise their commercial cards would be suspended.
The timeline for non-manufacturing export companies that repatriated less than 30% of their liability was Sept. 5, according to Hamid Zadboum, IRNA reported.
Zadboum said the organization has suspended the commercial cards of 320 export companies who missed the Sep.5 deadline.
The suspended cards belonged to non-manufacturing exporters and the TPO has not suspended the cards of manufactures.
There are concerns “that suspending the cards of manufactures may disrupt their business as they have to pay for labor and other operational costs,”Zadboum was quoted as saying.
However, he warned that the commercial cards of manufacturing exporters whose repatriation is zero would be suspended after the Sep. 21 deadline.
A special committee is looking into the commercial activity of other manufacturing exporters who have met a portion of their forex commitment.
Data indicate that 21,184 legal and individual entities exported goods in the past two fiscal years (March 2018-20). Manufacturing units involved in export account for 1,435 exporters and the rest are non-manufactures.
As per available data 2,056 exporters fully repatriated their earnings, representing 10% of the total, IRNA said. The number is expected to rise to 2,600 before the Monday deadline.
Earlier the TPO suspended 2,500 commercial ID cards of non-manufacturing exporters after they failed to heed repeated government warnings about upholding rules guiding currency transfers.
Observers blame users of the so-called “rented commercial cards” and unruly exporters for failure to repatriate overseas earnings, arguing that credible traders are less likely to breach government rules.
Export Limits
In August the government announced limits on export by owners of new commercial cards. Accordingly, exporters who got their commercial cards recently can export not more than $500,000 during the first year of their activity.
Likewise, new export companies can sell abroad worth $2 million in the second year. Manufactures that export are exempt from the rules.
The decision was made in consultation with Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) to promote the export sector and improve repatriation of export earnings.
Officials of the Central Bank of Iran say that out of the $72 billion revenue generated from non-oil export in the past two years, $27 billion is held overseas -- a figure that is challenged by the ICCIMA. The latter argues that the amount is inflated and that the share of real private sector in unfulfilled earnings is way lower.
