BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 12. The current government of Iran (which has been in power since August 2021) has a goal of reducing its dependence on crude oil exports, Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ehsan Khandouzi said, Trend reports.
According to the minister, the government has several programs to achieve this goal. One of them is to boost the export of non-oil products, such as petrochemicals, metals, and agricultural products.
He added that as the non-oil exports grow, the reliance on crude oil exports will decrease.
Khandouzi noted that another program is to increase tax revenues, which will also lead to reduce the need for oil revenues.
The minister stressed that the state budget reflects this priority, and the statistics show an increase in tax revenues.
The US sanctions have created various problems for Iran, such as finding buyers for its crude oil, and receiving the money for the oil exports without using the global banking system. Therefore, Iran intends to change its economic strategy and reduce the dependence on crude oil as a major source of income and budget.
Overall, Iran exported 55.9 million tons of non-oil products worth $19.3 billion during the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through August 22, 2023). This is an increase of 26.5 percent in value and a decrease of 8.55 percent in volume compared to the same period last year.
Within the mentioned 5 months, tax revenues in Iran stood at 2.82 quadrillion rials (about $67.2 billion), representing a 52 percent growth from the same period previous year.
Meanwhile, the value of Iran’s crude oil and petroleum products sales is expected to be 6.03 quadrillion rials (about $26.2 billion), according to the budget bill for the next Iranian year (March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024). Under the budget bill, Iran plans to sell 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day at an average price of $85 per barrel.
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