According to the law and similar to other products, importers of 25 groups of essential goods, including corn, barley, oilseeds, sugar and wheat, were required to pay customs duties before clearing their goods from the customs, IRIB News reported.
“But now IRICA is granting collection credit to importers of essential goods. As such, they are allowed to clear up to 80% of their goods and pay the duties related to customs clearance after selling them,” the official said.
“Currently, there are more than 4.23 million tons of essential goods, including 2 million tons of corn, 551,000 tons of barley, 407,000 tons of soya and 205,000 tons of oilseeds, at major ports of entry, such as Imam Khomeini, Shahid Rajaee, Amirabad, Noshahr, Anzali and Chabahar,” he said.
“About 4 million tons of non-essential, non-containerized goods like machinery and capital goods have been piled up at ports as well. New measures to facilitate their customs clearance will be introduced in the near future.”
According to the spokesman of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs administration, Rouhollah Latifi, a total of 25.09 million tons of essential goods worth $15.5 billion were imported into Iran during the last fiscal year (March 2019-20) to register a 20.77% and 17.13% increase in weight and value respectively, compared with the year before.
Iran: Special Customs Credit for Essential Goods Importers
The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration is now offering special customs credit to importers of essential goods, says Mehrdad Jamal Arvanaqi, an official with the administration.
According to the law and similar to other products, importers of 25 groups of essential goods, including corn, barley, oilseeds, sugar and wheat, were required to pay customs duties before clearing their goods from the customs, IRIB News reported.
“But now IRICA is granting collection credit to importers of essential goods. As such, they are allowed to clear up to 80% of their goods and pay the duties related to customs clearance after selling them,” the official said.
“Currently, there are more than 4.23 million tons of essential goods, including 2 million tons of corn, 551,000 tons of barley, 407,000 tons of soya and 205,000 tons of oilseeds, at major ports of entry, such as Imam Khomeini, Shahid Rajaee, Amirabad, Noshahr, Anzali and Chabahar,” he said.
“About 4 million tons of non-essential, non-containerized goods like machinery and capital goods have been piled up at ports as well. New measures to facilitate their customs clearance will be introduced in the near future.”
According to the spokesman of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs administration, Rouhollah Latifi, a total of 25.09 million tons of essential goods worth $15.5 billion were imported into Iran during the last fiscal year (March 2019-20) to register a 20.77% and 17.13% increase in weight and value respectively, compared with the year before.
There are now more than 4.23 million tons of essential goods, including 2 million tons of corn, 551,000 tons of barley, 407,000 tons of soya and 205,000 tons of oilseeds, ready to be cleared from major ports of entry, such as Imam Khomeini, Shahid Rajaee, Amirabad, Noshahr, Anzali and Chabahar
“This amount of essential goods accounted for close to 71% and 35% of the volume and value of last year’s total imports respectively,” the official was quoted by ISNA as saying.
“The imported essential commodities included wheat, sugar, corn, rubber, barley, processed tea, rice, seeds, red meat, soybeans, pulses, paper, fertilizers and industrial machinery.”
Also known as necessity goods, essential goods are products consumers will buy, regardless of changes in income levels.
Imam Khomeini Port, located in the southwestern Khuzestan Province, is the main of center of essential goods imports into Iran.
More than 14 million tons of these goods were cleared from the port last year, according to director general of the port’s customs administration, Rahmat Ali Fallah-Khoshdel.
“Over 12 million tons of goods worth more than $3.7 billion were exported from Imam Khomeini Port during the same period,” the official told ILNA.
The port earned 25 trillion rials ($156.25 million) in customs revenues during the year.
Imam Khomeini Port is located at the terminus of the trans-Iranian railroad linking the Persian Gulf with Tehran and on to the Caspian Sea. It is a transshipment point for containers, bulk and general cargo, with exclusive access to facilities held by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
The port has seven terminals with 40 berths of about 6,500 meters frontage.
About 400,000 tons of essential goods were imported into Iran's southern Hormozgan Province since the beginning of the current fiscal year (March 20).
According to Abolfazl Akbarpour, a customs official in the southern Hormozgan Province, the imports included rice, oil, oilseed, corn, wheat, barley, sugar, rubber, paper, oilcake, soybean and legume, Fars News Agency reported.
A total of 246,243 tons of the goods were imported from Shahid Rajaee Port alone, which is Iran's biggest commercial port, located 23 kilometers west of the port city of Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan Province.
More than 68.92 million tons of different types of commodities were loaded and unloaded in this port in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), registering a 1.74% growth compared with the year before.
Non-oil goods accounted for 43.32 million tons and oil products for over 25.59 million tons of the total, showing a 0.47% decline and a 5.33% growth respectively year-on-year.
According to the head of Majlis Development Commission, Mohammad Reza Rezaei-Kouchi, Shahid Rajaee Port has a 6% share in the region’s total container throughput per annum.
More than 3.18 million tons of essential goods were imported into Hormozgan Province in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20). Paper (906,147 tons), rice (787,250 tons) and sugar (411,345 tons) were the top imported goods.