Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran collected 310 trillion rials (about $8.8 billion) tax income in the first six months of the current Iranian fiscal year, which began on March 21.
Ali Askari, head of the Iran Tax Administration, said that the tax income was 82 percent of the figure which had been anticipated by the national budget law, Iran's Fars news agency reported on October 3.
No estimation about tax income in the next Iranian fiscal year had been yet made, he added.
"For the time being, the situation is not appropriate for increasing tax income. The economic recession has declined tax revenues. So, a high tax income cannot be projected for the next year," Askari said.
It is predicted that Iran's tax revenue will surpass that of oil in the current Iranian fiscal year (which started March 21), Askari said in June.
It is expected that the country's tax revenue will reach 750 trillion rials ($25.6 billion), he added.
According to the official, a sum of 130 trillion rials (close to $4.45 billion) from customs revenues will also be added to the amount.
Ali Kardor, the deputy managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), has said that President Rouhani's economic strategy is to significantly reduce the government's dependency on oil and instead collect tax more systematically.
"For the first time in 50 years, the government's share of the oil revenue is less than what it is earning from tax, including VAT (value-added tax)," he added.