According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Ahmad Sharifi, secretary of the Iranian Stone Association, spoke about the consequences of these effects and hopes that these effects will not continue until currency appreciation is achieved through production in excess of domestic consumption. The following is about this topic:

Last year, the main decision that affected the mining sector was the imposition of 20 percent export duties. In your opinion, how much did these effects play a role in reducing the export of minerals, including decorative stone?

We are not talking about all kinds of minerals because our expertise and responsibility is in the field of decorative stones, I can say that we have decreased by about thirty percent in terms of tonnage and about fifty percent in terms of value last year.
The outbreak of the corona virus showed its effect late last year, and we cannot say that this major decline was due to the corona outbreak, and if we consider the whole year, a very small part may be related to the corona. Much of this decline in exports was due to the imposition of tariffs on the export of decorative stones.

The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Industries of the Ministry of Industry and Mines has announced that 25 percent of all non-oil exports last year were related to the export of mines and mining industries. Which part of the mining and mineral industries does this increase belong to?

- This increase is mainly due to the metal value chain from iron ore to steel and I think part of it is related to copper, but in relation to decorative stones, unfortunately we had negative and reverse growth.

In 1394, the share of mining and mineral exports was sixteen percent of total exports, and in 1397 it had reached twenty-one percent. Do you think that these tolls have increased by 20%, which has led to a decrease in exports in the field of decorative stones?

Regarding the declining trend and the curve of high and low stone exports, I must say that in the government of Mr. Ahmadinejad, they passed a resolution on tolls of seventy percent. Because of those 70 percent taxes, we had a weird decline in exports, and we had about thirty to forty percent decrease in exports in the field of decorative stones. They may have felt that they were creating added value and increasing the export of processed stones, but we did not increase that, but we did reduce the export of processed stones. It took about a year and a half for the Stone Association and the people in charge to try. They made the ministry understand that these tolls were seventy percent of a non-expert decision and should not have made such a decision.

How did those tolls eventually change from seventy percent to zero percent, and what process did you go through to reduce export tolls?

Detailed engineering reports were prepared, and the Deputy Minister of Mines Affairs of the Ministry of Industry and Mines selected a consultant to do so. The consulting engineer spoke with all those involved in the industry, both governmental and non-governmental, and the manufacturing and processing units, and gathered complete information. At the end, he presented a report to the Ministry of Industry and Mines, saying that the ministry's work was wrong. This was proven wrong by the ministry, and after one year, the tolls were canceled by 70%.
It took several years for us to reach the same level of exports twice as much as before its 70 percent export. Because we lost our markets. Despite the bitter experience of committing this great mistake at that time with a very clear number, the ministry came back last year to repeat the same mistake and set a 20 percent fee for decorative stones.

In December of last year, it was announced that in the next meeting of the Export Policy Coordination Working Group (consisting of the Minister of Industry, the Chairman of the Central Bank and the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce), the tolls of 25 percent of decorative stones and minerals would be corrected. Why didn't there be any changes in January last year and the tolls didn't decrease?

That working group is the Article Twelve Commission. Twelve meetings were held in the Article Commission, and we explained and made clear the expert reports and were justified. In particular, Dr. Junaidi, the Vice President for Legal Affairs, was present at the meeting and confirmed that it was decided to review and amend the provisions of the Article Twelve Commission. Unfortunately, after that date, the issue of Corona came up and these decisions were marginalized and nothing was done.

The meeting was scheduled to take place on January 15. Corona's outbreak has been widespread since March last year. In January and February, no special action was taken?

Unfortunately no. In January and February, this was not done, and then the corona spread and practically stopped.

Mr. Sajjad Gharghi Nayeb (Chairman of the Association of Mineral Exporters) said that with the strange decisions made in the field of tolls, exports have decreased from forty to one hundred percent. Were the mines closed because of these tolls?

We have about 2,000 decorative stone mines in the country, of which about 1,000 are now closed. Last year, when the tolls were imposed, unfortunately, a large number of other decorative stone mines were closed. This was the biggest damage that the Ministry of Industry and Mines hit the production sector with its own hands.

To what extent is the closure of the mines due to the recession in the housing and construction sector?

We have about sixty million meters of building permits, which in 1392 was about one hundred and thirty million square meters. We have this reduction now. This decline was not something that happened only last year. This decline has occurred over the last four or five years, and the building has stagnated. What happened when we saw a 50 percent drop in exports last year? Although the construction process has not changed in recent years, it is due to the same 20 percent tolls.

Your Excellency says that in terms of tonnage, exports have dropped by 30% in terms of tonnage and in terms of value by 50%. Has the decrease in world prices negatively affected the amount of exports in terms of value?

We adjusted the base prices of our products last year due to the 20% tolls. In this regard, the devaluation of fifty percent shows, but the reality is that we experienced the same thirty percent. This fifty percent is in the Iranian customs figures, otherwise our stone has not decreased in terms of global prices. Our price was the same as in 1397. Customs says we exported $ 300 million in 1397, down from $ 150 million last year. In terms of weight, we exported 1.5 million tons in 1397, but last year it reached 1.2 million tons and we lost 300,000 tons. The basic price that we have corrected and announced to the customs, the customs will announce it and it will show less in the customs statistics.

Mr. Ismaili, Deputy Minister of Mines of the Ministry of Industry, said this year that the 20 percent tariffs imposed on the export of decorative stones for the export of stone, because we have a surplus, hinders the country's currency. Do you think that with this kind of comment from the Deputy Minister of Industry and Mines, it is possible that the tolls on decorative stones will be reduced by 20% this year?

As the board of directors of the association, we had a meeting with Dr. Ismaili on the 17th of Ordibehesht, and we talked about this in detail. Mr. Ismaili was fully justified, and of course the situation with these complications had nothing to do with Dr. Ismaili, and it happened before him and during Mr. Sarghini's tenure. They definitely take a percentage of the export of decorative stones.
We hope to be able to return to the same level of exports in 1397 this year.

Mr. Ismaili's speech was on May 11 of this year. Probably before your meeting, did they believe it was a barrier to currency exchange?

At this meeting, it was said that I had come to the conclusion that the tolls of 20% of the decorative stones should be removed. We were asked to come up with a proposal and plan to expand the export of processed stones and create added value. In other words, what can we do to make our stones more valuable and develop the processing sector? It is imperative that we do the necessary research in this regard and that the board of directors of the Stone Association give them a report so that more support can be provided to the decorative stone processing department.

* Iranian Stone Association