TEHRAN, Iran, June 15. Iran's saffron exporters are facing a challenge in exchanging revenues at Forex Management Integrated System (NIMA) or at other foreign exchange offices, a member of the National Saffron Council of Iran Gholamreza Miri told Trend.
The official pointed out that exporters have to pay between 1 to 3 percent fee for transferring revenues to the NIMA system while the USD rate in the free market is 70,000 rial (about $1.6) higher than the official rate.
Miri went on to say that in addition to these costs, saffron exporters have to pay a 0.5 percent tax for the export of virtual water. The export's costs are between 120 million rials (about $2,857) to 150 million rials (about $3,571) per kilo.
He noted that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) issued an announcement that would allow exporters to exchange revenues at official forex offices instead of the NIMA system but so far no forex office has agreed to exchange exporters' revenue.
The Iranian government has recently announced that exporters of saffron and medicinal herbs are allowed to barter revenue with importers of mobile phones, but the regulation was annulled in less than 48 hours and now owners of foreign exchange offices are concerned that new CBI instructions would have the same outcome.
The CBI issued instructions for authorized forex offices to buy and sell export revenues unlimitedly at a negotiable rate.