Iran: Private Production Units Reach Debt Swap Deal With Gov't

EghtesadOnline: Iranian private sector production units are now allowed to swap their debts to state-run banks or state-based services companies with what they are owed by government medical centers, a top private sector representative announced.

News ID: ۷۴۶۲۵۲

20 November 2018

According to a statement published on the official news website of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Yadollah Sadeqi, the head of Tehran Industries, Mining and Trade Organization, has informed the chamber of this development.

Sadeqi informed TCCIM that deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Akbar Komijani, has recently communicated the executive directive of this move to the banking system.

The debt swap initiative has been made possible through an article in the fiscal 2018-19 Budget Law, which was added as part of a larger debt swap agreement between the government and the private sector through the banking system and the central bank, Financial Tribune reported.

The article allows the government to issue Treasury bonds to swap its debts to real and legal persons created by the end of the previous fiscal year in March 2018 with the debts of the aforesaid entities to the government (ministries and state-owned institutions) up to 20 trillion rials ($153.85 million).

The article also allows the liabilities of real and legal persons to the government, which have been transferred to state companies to be cleared with government liabilities to the aforesaid companies, government liabilities to real and legal persons related to capital-intensive projects, and liabilities of the aforesaid persons to banks and non-bank credit institutions, all through Treasury bonds.

The executive directive, communicated to the banking system by Komijani as part of that budgetary article, states that private sector production units owing money from state-owned medical centers can swap those amounts with what they owe to state-owned banks and services companies.

The letter also states that any requests to use this legal article must be reviewed and sent to the banking system through the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, which is in charge of managing the liabilities and assets of the government.