Iran's automotive sector raked in over 23 trillion rials ($763 million at official exchange rate) for state coffers over the past 10 years (2005-15).
A percentage of every automotive transaction is paid as sales tax to the state. However, this only accounts for a portion of the revenues the government takes in from automotive transactions. Other areas include value-added tax and registration fees, Khabar Online reported.
In the current fiscal year (started March 21, 2015), Iran's car market was stagnant, resulting in less revenues for the government from this sector. In the first half of the year (March 21-Sept. 22, 2015) the amount of tax received by the state from automotive transactions declined by 210 billion rials ($5.7 billion at market exchange rate) compared to the previous year.
This year the government received nearly 2.4 trillion rials ($79.5 million) in automotive tax while last year 2.6 trillion rials ($86 million) were collected from the same source.
The amount of tax depends on the car model. It has been predicted that with the cars sold under the new loan scheme, revenues from this source would also increase for the government.
The auto loans, backed by President Hassan Rouhani’s administration and the Central Bank of Iran, offered 250 million rials to each buyer of a locally developed car in November and were meant to help the auto sector recover. However, their half-life meant the government received the revenue in only a short burst.
