Twists and Turns of Taxing Online Taxis: Report

Over the past two days, CEOs of Iranian online taxi firms, government and municipality officials, as well as unionists have had a hectic time on Twitter clashing over the taxation of local transportation startups.
According to Ali Pirhosseinlou, a Tehran Municipality official, urban managers will not intervene in online taxi firms’ pricing. 
However, Pirhosseinlou dropped a bombshell by declaring that “the municipalities will get a 2% cut from each trip's fare”. He did not elaborate on the decision-making
The TM official claimed that in return for paying the money to municipalities, the online taxi firms are to be exempted from paying value-added tax which, according to experts, has zero legality. Municipalities do not introduce taxes and cannot scrap them on a whim.
As per the law, the Iranian National Tax Administration is in charge of introducing taxes and exemptions.