Azerbaijan, Baku, July 28/ Trend M. Moezzi
The Economic Committee in Iran's Majlis (parliament) has drawn up a plan that would allow the government's official foreign exchange rate to be used only for importing essential, strategic goods.
The proposal was made as a result of a review process before it was submitted to the Majlis for consideration, Mehr news agency reports.
According to the bill, the government should prepare a list of strategic, essential goods and present it to the Majlis within four months after the bill's passage.
At present, the official exchange rate in Iran is 12,260 rilas to the dollar. That's significantly less than the rate in the country's free currency markets where a dollar has been fetching between 19,000 to 20,000 rials.
Importers of goods not included in the government's list of essential, strategic imports will have to get the foreign currency they need on the free market.
Iran's economy is under increasing pressure from the international sanctions levied against its oil industry and Central Bank because of the country's nuclear development programme. The sanctions make it nearly impossible for Iran to conduct financial transactions and move money around the globe.
July 1 marked the beginning of the European Union's ban on buying Iran's oil. The European companies, which insure almost all of the world's oil tankers, have stopped insuring vessels carrying Iranian oil.
In mid-March, the Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) expelled a number of Iranian financial institutions, including the Central Bank, making it almost impossible for them to conduct international banking transactions.
According to its own website, SWIFT connects 9,700 banking and financial institutions in 209 countries.
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