E-trust symbol will no longer be a precondition for receiving the online payment gateway, Iran Fintech Association announced.
Noting that the decision was approved in a meeting of the Board of Deregulation and Facilitation of Business Licensing, the association’s chairman, Mahdi Shariatmadar, tweeted that this issue will hopefully be verified by the Council of Ministers so that the mandatory requirement of e-trust symbol will end, Shanbemag reported.
The meeting was attended by Reza Olfat-Nasab as one of the representatives of the private sector and Shariatmadar as the chairman of Iran Fintech Association.
According to the official, problems related to the e-symbol were discussed during the meeting.
"From the public sector, only Mohammad Javad Hadi, the deputy director of Business Facilitation and Application Development at the e-Commerce Development Center, insisted on retaining the mandatory nature of e-symbol for receiving the payment gateway,” Shariatmadar said.
"The representative of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance opposed the imposition of mandatory e-symbol under the current economic circumstances.”
Shariatmadar emphasized that the representatives of these ministries believe that the mandatory acquisition of e-symbol will lead to a lack of transparency in business operations.
"According to the ministries, e-trust symbol must be separated from the license. The e-trust symbol is a validation symbol and cannot substitute a license. Therefore, it was approved by four votes to remove the requirement to get the payment gateway facility," he said.
According to the official, the administrative procedure should be followed and “this issue needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers in a short time”.
Currently, receiving an e-trust symbol from the Industries Ministry is one of the key factors in developing e-commerce, as users have greater confidence in such electronic services.
An e-trust symbol is displayed as a mark on top of sites that are legally permitted to provide such services.
The number of e-trust permits issued in the current Iranian year’s first eight months (March 21-Nov. 21) registered a 10.2% increase to reach 22,825.
E-trust permits issued in the eighth fiscal month (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) stood at 3,271 to register a 3.9% increase month-on-month, latest figures released by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade show.
In the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2021), these permits increased by a whopping 150.8% to 33,044.
Covid-19 Helps Promote Online Businesses
With the expansion of internet access and curbs on social interactions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, people's preference for online shopping is growing worldwide, including Iran.
The E-Commerce Development Center of Iran has released the results of a seven-month (March 21-Oct. 22) nationwide survey on the status of online businesses, IRNA reported.
Faranak Abolmasoum, the head of E-Commerce Monitoring Office at the center, said 51.9% of online businesses are retailers and wholesalers, 20.5% are service providers and 27.6% are active in both fields.
According to the survey, 80.6% of online businesses take orders via social networks, in addition to their websites, 34.1% use mobile messaging apps and 26.8% have developed brand-specific mobile and web applications.
Instagram, the social networking service that accounted for the lion's share of Iran's e-commerce, was used by more than 86.2% of online shops. WhatsApp Messenger was the second most popular media tool for businesses with online activities (50.3%).
According to Abolmasoum, 75% of online shops used Iran Post Company's delivery services, 31.4% used intercity transit services, 30.4% used their own delivery channels and 25.5% used private postal services for delivering parcels to customers.
The survey showed men placed 62.9% of online orders while women accounted for 37.1%.
E-Commerce Development Center of Iran also found that 93.6% of the surveyed businesses used private investments for development.
Officials attribute these developments to the country's expanding ICT infrastructure and believe that Iran's e-commerce has the potential to grow further if the telecommunication services operate at a higher capacity.
NIN as a Base
The country’s ICT outlet is called National Information Network launched in August 2016 as a tool for offering electronic and smart services as well as a powerful platform for the local internet.
Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technologies Isa Zarepour has declared that the integrated network project will be completed in four years.
“After around two decades of foot-dragging, it is finally time to give the initiative one last push,” he added.
NIN was first proposed in 2005 by the ICT Ministry as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content. After a long-running saga, the project was launched in August 2016.
