Azerbaijan, Baku, May 18/ Trend F.Milad/
The Shahrvand chain store in Iran has removed 100 foreign-made goods in its stock lists because similar goods are being manufactured domestically, the ILNA News Agency reported.
The move is in line with an approval on forbidding sales of foreign made goods which are similar to their domestically produced rivals in department stores.
Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said on May 1 that a cabinet approval to import 24 billion dollars of basic goods this year (which began on March 20) will have "no negative effect" on domestic production.
Meanwhile, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi announced that the cabinet has approved a bill allocating 24 billion dollars for the importation of basic goods such as rice, cooking oil, meat, rice, etc. The announcement came as food prices has started rising over the past few weeks.
The announcement faced some criticism by some economic experts and officials including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Expediency Council chief.
"In the past years to regulate the market we also did such things and at this point, some say this rate is more than the previous years which is incorrect," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
"This has been done in order to provide basic goods and regulate the market and we will see its effect on modifying prices in the market in the future," he added.