Seized Cryptomining Equipment Released

The Organization for Collection and Sale of State-Owned Property says it has returned a part of seized cryptomining equipment to their owners after it was obliged to do so by the courts. 
"Currently some 150,000 cryptomining equipment are held by the OCSSOP, a large part of which will be released following judicial rulings. machines have already been returned," Abdolmajid Eshtehadi, head of the organization was quoted as saying by the Economy Ministry news outlet.
"Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Company (Tavanir) should propose new plans in order to make use of [the remaining] hardware, without causing damage to the national grid," Eshtehadi said.
In July 2019 the government said it accepts mining of digital currency as a legal industry and obliged miners to acquire license from the Ministry of Industries and pay their electricity bills based on export rates. 
Cryptominers should also get special permits from the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade for importing equipment. Moreover, the Iran Standard Organization must  approve the mining devices before it is used.
Mining cryptos by using power (natural gas or electricity) subscribed for any other purpose is illegal and those in breach are penalized.
Illegal farms have cropped up with increasing speed using subsidized electricity because they must pay much higher tariffs if they operate with a permit. 
When power shortages increased last summer, Tavanir, the main utility in Iran shut illegal cryptomining units. 
Before implementation of the penalties, the utility used to confiscate illegal cryptomining equipment and cut power supply to the mining farms.  Offenders were also required to pay for damages to the national grid.
According to Tavanir, more than 7,200 unauthorized cryptomining centers have been found and shut and more than 250,000 mining hardware were seized since 2020.  
Earlier it said that illegal miners used 3.84 trillion rials ($16.5 million) in subsidized electricity and inflicted 380 billion rials ($1.3 million) in damages to the national grid.
The Majlis Research Center, the research wing of the parliament, has taken a stance on the negative impact of the government ban on crypto trade and closure of unauthorized mining centers and dismissed it as a failure.
Last year, the prosecutor-general’s office banned the release of hardware used by unauthorized cryptominers until laws are passed by the Majlis on how to deal with the illegal miners.