Iran orders payments by shipping agents through foreign currency
Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 30/ Trend M. Moezzi
Foreign shipping lines Iranian agents will have to pay for port services with foreign currency.
The Iran Ports and Maritime Organization's (PMO) Managing Director, Seyed Ataollah Sadr told Mehr news agency that while foreign companies must pay for services in foreign currency Iranian companies pay the PMO in rials (Iran's national currency).
Mr. Sadr contended that some Iranian companies get foreign currency from foreign shipping lines, sell that money in Iran's free currency market and pay the government the official currency exchange rate.
The Central Bank of Iran has set the U.S. dollar's official (reference) rate at 12,260 rials. The dollar cost 27,500 rials in Iran's free currency market yesterday, 15,240 rials more than the dollars sold by the government.
The directive issued by the PMO is designed to stop the companies from selling foreign currency on the free market.
As announced by the Central Bank of Iran, Iranian companies can get foreign currency at two percent below the market rate from the newly instituted Iran Forex Center. The center was opened by Iran's government in an effort to stop the rials plunge in value. The new foreign exchange center allows importers of goods, including truck tires, construction equipment and synthetic fibers to buy dollars at a rate two per cent cheaper than the street rate at any given time.
