Iran and Afghanistan can resolve issues related to export income repatriation by creating a joint fund through which Afghan migrants in Iran can send money home and exporters repatriate their revenue, head of the Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce said.
“More than 1.5 million Afghans live and work in Iran Most of them send money to their families back home after changing rials to dollars at Iranian exchange shops,” Hossein Salimi was quoted as saying by TCCIM.ir.
Salimi implied that Afghans can put the money into the proposed fund in Iran, instead of transferring it home. Exporters’ money would be kept in the fund in Afghanistan, to be used for making payments to Afghans in Iran.
“Transactions between the two neighbors have continued in Iranian currency for a long time. However, our exporters face hurdles, especially after the announcement of new regulations for repatriating their foreign earnings,” he recalled.
Exporters to some neighbors, especially Iraq and Afghanistan, always complain that they are paid by Iranian importing companies in rial rather than foreign currency (not even in the afghani or dinar), and therefore they should be exempt from currency repatriation rules.
The CBI insists that export earning repatriation must either be in a foreign currency or import of goods.
Rules related to the repatriation of export earnings were tightened after the United Sates under Donald Trump announced a new economic siege in the spring of 2018 unleashing a foreign currency crisis as oil exports plummeted to unprecedented lows cutting off the biggest chunk of forex revenue.
Soon after the government obliged exporters to sell their export earnings at a secondary market operating under CBI supervision.
In this system, locally known by the acronym Nima, importers declare their currency needs, exporters register their proceeds and banks and authorized moneychangers act as dealers.
Export repatriation rules announced by the CBI in July stipulate that all non-oil exporters must bring back at least 80% of their earnings in “foreign exchange hawala” and maximum 20% in hard currency.
Iran accounts for nearly half of Afghanistan's market demand, according to Iran’s commercial attaché to the neighboring country, Mohammad Mehdi Javanmard-Qassab.
As per available data, Iran’s non-oil export to Afghanistan amounted to $1.5 billion in eight months to Nov. 21, up 1.3% compared to the same period last year.
