The vice president for economic affairs on Saturday announced the government’s plan of action to “facilitate exports and improve import management.”
Mohsen Rezaee communicated the provisions of the plan to the relevant organizations, the Central Bank of Iran and the industries and economy ministries.
The plan, among other things, seeks to augment foreign currency revenue by boosting non-oil export, find new export markets, improve foreign trade with a focus on neighboring countreis and facilitate import of basic goods.
In coordination with other administrative bodies, the Industries Ministry is tasked with creating the conditions for “new bilateral or multilateral trade and customs agreements and reinforce the existing arrangements with other countries.”
The roadmap states that Iran will forge trade deals with at least ten countries one year after the plan is enforced.
In addition, the ministry should “identify local banks and reliable exchange bureaus in neighboring and friendly countries, and create safe financial channels to transfer money”. This is to be facilitated in collaboration with the CBI and the foreign and economy ministries.
For logistics capacity building for goods transport, the Road Ministry will be responsible for improving and expanding sea, rail and road infrastructure.
Promoting Barter Deals
The plan calls for promoting barter of crude oil and gas with “high priority goods”. Goods eligible for import would be determined by the relevant administrative bodies, namely the health, agriculture industries ministries.
The Economy Ministry should create the technological infrastructure and networks for online platforms for sharing data among administrative bodies related to foreign trade.
Likewise, the necessary grounds would be prepared to ease procedures involved in issuing import-export permits. The relevant bodies have until the fiscal yearend (March 2022) to create online platforms for issuing the permits.
To encourage non-oil export, the Economy Ministry is obliged to refund value added tax of non-oil exporters “unconditionally” within one month after export and after exporters fully meet their commitments to repatriate forex income.
Export companies in Iran are obliged to bring back earnings in foreign exchange hawala and sell it via the secondary foreign exchange market, known as Nima. They can also sell their currency to authorized exchange shops.
Nima is an online platform affiliated to the CBI where exporters sell their overseas currency and companies buy for import. Rules also oblige exporters to return their earnings within four months starting from the date the export permit is issued by the customs authorities.
Exporters can use part of their earnings to import goods, raw material and machinery either for their own needs or for a third party under “currency barter” mechanisms.
Striving to find alternative source of income to substitute the shrinking oil revenues, successive governments have promoted non-oil export.
Speaking at Iran’s pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, the Industries Minister Reza Fatemi Amin said “the government will eliminate all export obstacles by the yearend,” IRNA reported.
