Budget’s Oil Dependence Declines to 30%

The taxation policy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance has proven to be effective in reducing the dependency of Iran’s budget on oil revenues from 70% during the previous administration to less than 30%, Dolat.ir reported. According to official figures, government revenues from taxation outweighed oil revenues in the fiscal March 2015-16 for the first time in half a century. The Central Bank of Iran’s data show the country has seen a constant annual increase in tax revenues since the government of President Hassan Rouhani came into office in 2013. This comes as the tax rates have remained unchanged over the years, except for the value added tax that rose by one percentage point to boost healthcare services. The increase owes for the most part to the cancellation of tax reliefs and stemming evasions.