Untie exporters
The private sector, which in recent years has had disagreements with the government over how to deal with exporters, reiterated its demands in a letter to the president in the early days of the new year.
According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, for the past three years and under US economic sanctions, non-oil exporters have been required to meet part of the country's foreign exchange needs by returning the currency from their exports to the country. Although statistics show that a significant portion of the currency has returned to the country, there are still differences of opinion, and this time the heads of the three chambers of commerce, co-operation and trade unions have asked President Hassan Rouhani in a joint text to follow up on some of the problems. .
The full text of this letter, published by the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and signed by Gholamhossein Shafei, President of the Chamber, is as follows:
Respectfully, as you are aware, the emergence of numerous problems in the field of foreign exchange policy of the country after the imposition of oppressive sanctions caused that despite the capacities and opportunities created for the country's exporters due to the devaluation of the national currency, exports could not advance the national economy and development goals. Economic and export enterprises to exploit, of course, part of these issues have arisen due to the most severe sanctions and the other part due to the internal problems of the country.
In the meantime, the issuance of numerous foreign exchange and trade directives by the executive bodies, especially the Central Bank, during the last two and a half years, has stalled the country's exports and taken away the opportunity for growth and leap; In these difficult and dusty conditions, according to the official announcement of the Governor of the Central Bank, up to 22 billion dollars of the country's export currency, which covers 70% of the foreign exchange needs of different parts of the country, has been provided through non-oil exports.
In such circumstances, with the wisdom of His Excellency to change the course of trade policies from the Central Bank to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, the transfer of foreign trade powers to this ministry, which issued a communiqué approved by the 177th Economic Coordination Headquarters on "Methods of foreign exchange and return "Export currency" No. 90829 dated November 3, 2016, has reached the scene of emergence, sparks of hope appeared in the hearts of the country's exporters; However, since the communiqué has been prepared with the approach of solving the problems of imports and supplying raw materials to factories through the currency obtained from exports, in addition to solving the problems of imports, it must also solve the problems facing exporters.
It is important to note that the spirit of Communication 177 of the Government's Economic Coordination Headquarters, although in the field of imports, has removed some of the obstacles; But in the other dimension, namely the field of exports, serious problems still remain, and if no action is taken to resolve it, the implementation of this communiqué will be effectively ineffective; For this reason, the Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade, with regard to this issue, instructed the Foreign Exchange Action Committee of the Trade Development Organization to examine the supplementary cases of this communiqué in the presence of representatives of all different executive bodies along with representatives of Iran's three chambers. Finally, the outcome of these meetings was the drafting of 13 clauses approved by all executive bodies and the private sector, which were submitted to the committee for approval. But now, despite all the efforts made and the issue raised in the Article (2) Committee after a lapse of more than three months, unfortunately this draft has not been approved and according to Communication 177, it still remains ineffective, as exporters at the end of 1399 are still doing their job. They do not know about the exports of 1397, 1398 and 1399, and on the other hand, importers are not able to decide and use enough export currency for the same reasons; As the feeling of shortage of raw materials in production units has reappeared.
Evidence of this claim is the supply of foreign currency in the Nima system at twice the demand, which proves that the problem of foreign trade still exists and the regulation of imports versus exports has not been achieved. Therefore, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Mining and Agriculture, along with the Iranian Chamber of Guilds and the Chamber of Cooperatives, as advisors to the three forces in this regard, while expressing concern about the current trend, believe that if the 13th amendment was approved, in addition to solving the remaining problems of previous years. In the field of foreign trade, including exports and imports, economic actors in this field in 1400 will have a clear vision ahead. Therefore, due to the importance of non-oil exports and import support in order to meet the needs of raw materials and production equipment, it is possible to enter the issue in person and order as soon as possible and before the end of 1399, the draft approved by all executive bodies and the private sector. Member of the Foreign Exchange Action Committee of the Trade Development Organization of Iran, to be approved and notified in the Article (2) Committee to address the concerns of foreign trade activists before the end of this year. It is noteworthy that these proposals are aimed at resolving the ambiguities of the responsible executive bodies in the field of foreign trade and will actually implement the 177th communiqué. We ask God Almighty for the increasing success of your Excellency and all those who serve the holy system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
* ISNA
