Some cellphone buyers could not register their devices via the system named Hamta, which caused problems for both buyers and sellers.
Recently, Hamta notifications faced wide-scale disruptions, which created financial and legal risks for cellphone buyers, ICT News Agency reported.
Operators of the cellphone registry system have admitted that the problem mainly concerns the SIM cards of Hamrahe Aval, the brand name used by the Mobile Communications Company of Iran, which is a subsidiary of the Telecommunications Company of Iran.
Apparently, TCI’s financial disputes with the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology have given rise to such a problem.
The registry project, designed to curb cellphone smuggling into the country, has earned the government a great deal of customs revenues that should be used to improve the quality of telecom services. This, however, has not happened so far.
While confirming that the Hamta system has been interrupted recently, Mehdi Mohebbi, the head of the Union of Telecommunications Devices, said, “It seems that there have been financial disputes between the Hamta system and some mobile phone operators, and this issue has harmed the interests of mobile phone buyers and businesses.”
Stressing that the interruption of Hamta text messages will be detrimental to buyers, the official said, “Buyers may get confused during their mobile phone purchases and due to the lack of ownership transfer, they might buy a counterfeit phone mistakenly instead of a genuine one.”
Mohebbi noted that the ICT and industries ministries are the two main entities responsible for solving this problem by coordinating with mobile phone operators.
“At present, many customers could not purchase a new phone due to this problem in the Hamta system. This problem will be resolved, but in the meantime, many smuggled phones would have entered the market,” he said.
“Operators, especially Hamrahe Aval, do not send Hamta SMS to customers. Guilds and mobile phone buyers also have no responsibility vis-a-vis financial disputes between government bodies and mobile phone operators.”
The official said profiteers and smugglers will take advantage of this opportunity and bring in a large number of stolen and smuggled phones into the market and sell them to customers in the absence of registry SMS.
This will also cause problems for people who want to sell their cellphones, as ownership transfer becomes problematic.
Mohebbi explained that the union is not responsible for phone registration and cannot follow up this issue.
Gov’t Approves Regulations to Support Smartphone Production
The Council of Ministers has approved executive regulations to support smartphone production and the domestic microelectronics industry outlined in the budget law of the fiscal 2022-23.
According to these regulations, the import duty for cellphones worth over $600 is equal to 12% and the revenues obtained will be allocated to the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade’s Support Fund for Research and Development of Advanced Industries.
As mobile phone manufacture in Iran has high risks for the private sector, the government has endeavored to cover this risk by extending legal protections in the form of a budget program by levying the import tariff on smartphones and allocating the revenues for the development of the domestic mobile phone ecosystem, the news portal of the Council of Ministers reported.
The necessity of having an annual production of 20% of smartphones (amounting to nearly three million devices) needed domestically is the main reason for the regulation’s approval.
Credits are allocated to these industries in the framework of programs approved by a working group consisting of the ministers of ICT and industries, as well as the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces and the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology.
The main goals of these regulations are to upgrade the level of technology and quality of products, promote export development and support research projects. Subsequently, investment facilities, financial support and profit subsidies have been lined up to help achieve these goals.
Financial support will amount to a minimum of 70% and a maximum of 90% for domestic smartphone production, and a minimum of 10% and a maximum of 30% for the microelectronics industry.
