Iran: Customs Clearance Process Back to Normal

EghtesadOnline: Customs clearance process for imports is back to normal following the announcement that 3,479 items have become exempt from exchange rate difference surcharge, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration said.

News ID: ۷۸۳۹۳۸

10 September 2018

Foroud Asgari added that IRICA releases up to 90% of commodities of traders facing banking problems, ILNA reported.

Echoing similar remarks, Alireza Dashtani, director of Shahid Rajaee Customs, said as many as 2,500 containers are being cleared daily from the customs of Shahid Rajaee Port, Iran’s biggest container port at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Hormozgan Province.

"Most of these goods are essential goods, raw materials and auto parts,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.

Over the first five months of the current year (March 21), raw materials cleared from Shahid Rajaee Customs have seen a 5% rise compared with the same period of last year, Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.

Under Clause V of the government’s new foreign currency policy, goods imported after the implementation of the new policy could receive customs clearance only if their owners paid the surcharge on difference between the government’s subsidized forex rate (42,000 rials per dollar) at which they registered their import orders before the new policy took effect, i.e. on August 7, and the forex rate determined by the secondary market.

An increasing number of consignments were piled up at customs terminals of major Iranian ports, without being claimed by their owners since the government unveiled its new FX policy and its controversial Clause V.

Facing a rising tide of criticisms from traders and their representatives in the parliament, the government introduced new amendments to Clause V: the surcharge was set at 28,000 rials and a list of import items that could enjoy the exemption from paying the surcharge was released.

It also noted that importers who fail to pay the surcharge will be introduced to the ‘Tazirat’ organization (a judiciary-affiliated oversight body dealing with trading offenses) and might face the risk of not receiving foreign currency for future imports.