Importers who have completed their customs clearance procedures but fail to discharge their goods from warehouses at the ports of entry will be heavily penalized, the head of Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran said.
“A progressive increase in warehouse charges is one of those penalties,” the news outlet of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development also quoted Mohammad Rastad as saying.
Noting that the volume of essential goods at Imam Khomeini Port in Iran’s southern Khuzestan Province has reached 3 million tons, Rastad said it takes 2-3 months on average for imports to be cleared from Iranian ports.
“We are working to speed up the clearance procedures of essential goods from ports in order to avert any future problems associated with the capacity of warehouses,” he said.
Latest data show a total of 11 million tons of essential goods were imported into Iranian ports during the first five months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), according to Ravanbakhsh Behzadian, an official with Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran.
The volume of imports indicates a 67% rise compared with last year's corresponding period.
Ever since the imposition of sanctions by the United States on Iran last year dubbed by US President Donald Trump's administration as "toughest ever", the Iranian government has directed its trade regime toward the import of essential goods, mainly food products and pharmaceuticals.
On the other hand, imports of what the government deems as non-essential goods, mainly those with domestic counterparts, have been restricted or banned.
The sanctions were imposed after Trump decided to unilaterally walk out of the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers, including the United States. The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was signed in 2015 and implemented a year later. It saw years of international sanctions lifted against Iran. In exchange, the country agreed to limit the scope of its nuclear program.
It takes 2-3 months on average for imports to be cleared from Iranian ports
The US sanctions have targeted Iran's trade by obstructing its commercial exchanges with other countries.
Imam Khomeini Port has been at the forefront of importing essential goods. Close to 7 million tons of such goods, including barley, corn, oilseeds, sugar and vegetable oil, were unloaded at the port during the same five months, indicating a 64% increase year-on-year.
The large volume of unclaimed, imported goods left at port warehouses, mostly due to the multitude of regulations and procedures, has been one of the sharp criticisms leveled at PMO and the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration over the past year.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration has introduced a so-called emergency plan to speed up the clearance of import and reduce the pile up of goods at ports.
Lengthy order registration process, missed deadlines in the import process and the requisite needed for re-obtaining the permit from the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade and many other organizations are some of the problems delaying customs clearance.
The allocation and transfer of foreign currency and expiration of traders' commercial ID cards (certificates issued by the Industries Ministry, which identifies the applicants through Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture and permits individuals and entities to trade) are among grievances aired by importers in their meetings with IRICA officials.
These importers mainly dealt with auto parts, petrochemical raw materials, textiles, medical equipment, generators, subway equipment and household appliances.
In June last year, 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.
The banned items 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 some auto parts.
Unusual 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. By and large, the ban remains in place.
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.
