IRICA has recently introduced an emergency plan to speed up the clearance of imports and reduce the pile-up of goods at customs and ports.
The order issued by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration's newly-appointed chief, Mehdi Mirashrafi, pertained to containers accumulated at the southern port of Shahid Rajaee, IRICA’s news service reported.
IRICA says a total of 18,871 out of 42,000 shipping containers of merchandise piled up at customs terminals across the country in the nine months ending Dec. 21, 2018, have been declared abandoned.
More than 90% of the goods marked as abandoned due to complications associated with customs clearance had completed import order registration.
Located 23 kilometers west of the port city of Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan Province, Shahid Rajaee Port is Iran’s biggest container port at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the start of plan, over 160 dossiers were examined by port officials in two days.
Shipping containers have been abandoned at Shahid Rajaee Port since the year 2000, which need permits from state bodies, including the Department of Environment, for customs clearance.
Under IRICA’s emergency plan, Shahid Rajaee Port’s abandoned containers will be cleared in no more than a week, senior customs officials say.
Up to 60 hurdles in the way of customs clearance process, from restrictive rules and regulations to mismanagement, have been identified and will be removed to end the pile-up of imports at ports.
Traders' Grievances
Lengthy order registration process, missed deadlines and the requisites demanded for regaining a permit from the Ministry of Industries and other organizations as well as problems related to the allocation of foreign currency and expiration of traders' commercial ID cards (certificates issued by the ministry, which identifies the applicants through the endorsement of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, and permits individuals and entities to conduct trade) were grievances aired by importers in their meetings with IRICA officials.
Under IRICA’s emergency plan, Shahid Rajaee Port’s abandoned containers will be cleared in no more than a week
Owners of auto parts, petrochemical raw materials, textiles, medical equipment, generators, equipment used in subway system and household appliances were among importers referred to customs officials over the past few days.
One of the criticisms leveled at the government this year was about the large volume of unclaimed imported goods left at customs mostly due to several new regulations and directives.
In June, the government banned the import of 1,339 commodities categorized as “non-essential goods with domestic counterparts” and repealed orders registered for the import of these commodities.
Banned imports included cars, refrigerators and freezers, automatic folding cabin doors of elevators, farm tractors, milk powder, ambulances, range hoods, stoves, ovens, tea- and coffee-makers, cameras, musical instruments and auto parts.
Items such as full-lace hair wigs, scarves and wimples, thermoses, colored pencils, soap, candles, tomato ketchup, shovel and spades, teabags, whey cheese, cow leather and postcards were also on the list of banned imports.
According to an assessment by the Persian daily Donya-e-Eqtesad, the banned imports accounted for less than 8% or $4.04 billion of the country’s overall imports in the last fiscal year (March 2017-18), which indicate that the foreign currency saved on the back of such protective measure would be insignificant.
The import tariff on items categorized as “Group Four” ranged from 5-55% last year.
An increasing number of consignments were piled up at customs terminals of major Iranian ports, without being claimed by their owners since the government unveiled its ban on the import of these products.
More than six months into the ban, the government has now set conditions to allow the entry of banned commodities into the country.
As per the new decision, items on the list of banned imports can now be transferred to free trade zones and special economic zones.
Experts believe that the revision made on restrictive import policies is a step forward for removing the ban on their imports to the mainland.
