Majlis Joint Commission has okayed the government-proposed threefold rise in departure tax for the next fiscal year’s (March 2018-19) budget bill from current year’s 750,000 rials ($17) to 2.2 million rials ($51). “The tax for tourists heading toward religious destinations, namely Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, remained unchanged at 375,000 rials ($8.7) for air travelers and 125,000 rials ($2.9) for road travelers,” the spokesman of the commission, Ali Asghar Yousefnejad, said. Tourists making mass pilgrimage of Arbaeen, a major Shia occasion marking the 40th-day anniversary after the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH), to neighboring Iraq will be exempt from paying departure tax, he was quoted as saying by IRNA. The commission’s ratification needs to receive a parliamentary approval followed by the Guardians Council’s verification before it is enforced as law. The joint commission is a parliamentary body responsible for reviewing the budget bill as well as five-year development plans proposed by the government before it is put to a parliamentary vote.
