The government has announced that it plans to ease jewelry export regulations as it seeks to boost non-oil exports. The move is expected to reduce the currently high volume of jewelry imports.
From now on, jewelers of gold, platinum and silver can export their products without previously required guarantees. Based on the decision by the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, the jewelers can apply for export permits via the central bank. The move comes following the enforcement of a government directive that was recently ratified.
However, the jewelers still have to import the exported jewelry’s precious metal content.
Earlier, the Money and Credit Council – in charge of setting the monetary policy – approved a new directive to ease the movement of precious metals in and out of the country. According to the new law, gold exporters will no longer need to guarantee that they will return the gold or bring back the equivalent cash in foreign currencies.
“The new decision is aimed at boosting the gold market, which is currently in a deep recession,” said Mohammadreza Pour-Ebrahimi, a member of the council.
So far, gold exporters had to either guarantee that they would exchange their profits, which they earned in foreign currencies, at the central bank at an official exchange rate, or import the equivalent amount of the exported gold back to the country within a defined period.
For imports of the precious metals, the directive gives a one-year period to manufacture jewelry out of the bullion. If the finished products are exported, the original importers need to pay the value added tax for them.
Experts believe the new regulations will help ease the current restrictions on the export of gold. As far as value added tax and gold import tariffs are concerned, the directive is also expected to bring transparency to the current tariff system.
