Cigarette Taxes Top $20m

The government earned about 800 billion rials ($21 million) in tax revenues from cigarette sales during the first two months of the current fiscal year (March 21-May 21), the Central Bank of Iran announced. The sum accounted for 0.7% of the government’s earnings from indirect taxes during the period, up from 0.6% in the corresponding period of last year, Mizan Online reported. Taxes on cigarette sales are planned to reach 4.6 trillion rials (over $120.7 million) by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2018). Cigarette consumption in Iran stands at 55 billion per year. The domestic production of cigarettes hit 45 billion in the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), which is 15 billion more than in the year before.