Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.13 / Trend F.Mehdi /
Some 23,000 tons of staple foods, including chicken meat, edible oil and butter have been imported into Iran via Tehran customs in the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2012-January 19, 2013), ILNA reported.
Some 842,000 tons of goods were also exported via Tehran customs, showing a 45 per cent rise year on year.
On October 22, 2012, Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi rejected the idea of reinventing the coupon-based supply of staple foods.
The Donya-ye Eqtesad daily quoted Rahimi as saying that reserves of staple foods such as rice, meat, milk and edible oil are sufficient and there is no need to re-launch the coupon-based system.
Meanwhile member of the Iranian parliament's economic committee Arslanan Fathipour said Iran might be implementing electronic discount cards for strategic products.
Fathipour said that given today's economic situation in the country and the imposed international sanctions, the coupons must be brought back in the shape of electronic ones.
This would be the second time Iran has used such a strategy to support its economy. After the Islamic Revolution in 1981 the country was experiencing a great deficit of some foods and services.
At that time there was an order to implement the special discount coupons for 10 emergency first products and services to reduce the overall prices. After the economy stabilised, Iran cancelled the discount coupons.