Mandatory Insurance Tax Irks Industry Chief

Lawmakers have forced the insurance industry to pay millions of dollars more in taxes to the government in a move that has irked the head of Central Insurance of Iran, the entity in charge of regulating the industry.

In an open session of the parliament on Monday, 140 lawmakers from a total of 200 voted to pass a measure that obligates insurers to hand over 2.75 trillion rials ($59.13 million) of their premium to the treasury from personal auto policies for the fiscal 2018-19. 

The payments will be made weekly based on a table of the portfolio of each company approved by the CII-affiliated High Council of Insurance. The payments are to be considered as tax.

CII President Abdolnasser Hemmati was less than pleased with the fact that the already cash-strapped insurers must dole out more money to the government forcefully.

On Tuesday morning, he complained in a tweet that the mandatory number is 10% higher than the one obtained last year and that is on top of the 10% that insurers are obligated to pay the Health Ministry.

“I hope that at least they will present a short report on where and how they are spending these monies and what benefit it has for the insurance industry. If not, they should at least stop talking about insurers posting losses,” he wrote.

In his latest press conference on the condition of insurance industry in late January, Hemmati announced that insurance policies were up by 20% in the first nine months of the current fiscal year to Dec. 21, while the amount of money reimbursed to the insured as compensation has risen by 23%.