Iranian artisans pay six times as much as advanced countries
An industry expert said that the industry alone pays 60% of tax in Iran, while in most developed countries the share of industry tax is less than 10%.
According to Iran's International Stone Exhibition, Sina Ahdian, an economic expert in the monitoring program on the status of the industry in the Iranian economy, stated that the industry's share in GDP is twelve percent. But the industry alone pays 60 percent of the country's tax. In the world this is the opposite.
He added: The share of industry in the GDP of Malaysia, South Korea and France is more than twenty percent and in taxation is three and two, thirteen and six and sixteen and a half percent. Generally, in most developed countries, the share of industry tax is less than 10%.
"When our industry is like this, it loses the ability to compete with advanced nations," Ahdian said. At the moment, the hands of the government are expensive in the throats of industry and they are under pressure. Taxation is basically the source of income for governments in developed countries. It is also used as a regulatory tool.
"This means that tax is a tool for the growth of productive industries," he said. In this way, the government contributes to their growth by lowering taxes on productive industries, and uses tax as an incentive.
According to the economic expert, under the Competitiveness of Barriers to Production Act and the promotion of the country's financial system approved in 2015, units located in less developed areas are taxed at zero rates for ten years. Also, five-year tax exemptions should be imposed for industrial settlements 100 kilometers from Tehran.
Ahdian emphasized: After this issue, the Cabinet of Ministers adds in the drafting of the executive by-law of this law that the airspace of the settlements must be more than one hundred twenty kilometers in order to be subject to the law. This has led to the taxation of many industries around Tehran. Of course the interesting point is that the industrial towns of Qom and Semnan do not fall within this distance.
He continued: "Of course, in explaining this exception, the President and the Speaker of Parliament should be asked!"
Ahadian stated that the addition of a clause to the bylaws had closed down many industries and made production go into isolation. It also drove domestic and foreign investors out of production.
He continued: Two ministers at the same time protested the airspace of industries. But nothing has happened so far and the first vice president has not responded.
Ahadian said that fifty-two percent of the country's 300 billionaires have no tax, adding that the remaining forty-eight percent do not pay their real taxes. In this country, taxpayers, doctors and lawyers should be taxed, who have high and comfortable incomes. But for now, the country's tax burden is on production.
At the end, Ahdian said, a resistance economy headquarters was formed in the country under the command of the first vice president, but so far it has had no effect. Tax evasion in the country should be avoided and the burden of taxation should be borne by entrepreneurs and craftsmen.
* Tasnim
