Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 17
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's tax revenues stood at 370 trillion rials (some $10.6 billion based on free market exchange rate) during the first eight months of the current Iranian year, starting from March 21.
Head of Iran's tax organization, Ali Askari, said that the national budget bill for the next fiscal year has envisaged that the share of tax incomes of the budget will increase, Iran's Fars news agency reported Dec. 17.
Taxes and duties income hold 50-55 percent share of the next year's budget, he noted.
Falling global oil prices, from $110 in mid-2014 to less than $65 currently, forced Iran's government to decrease the oil price figure in next year's budget bill from current $100/barrel to $72/barrel, but taxes revenues were set to increase by 30 percent to $23.15 billion.
The current share of taxes in Iran's GDP (at current prices) is about 7 percent, but Iran wants to increase the figure as much as possible.
Askari said last December that about 25 percent of the Iran's overall economy does not pay taxes.
Tax evasion is the main problem of the country's taxation system, he added.
Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia has said that tax evasion in the country should be dealt with.
"We are planning to increase tax incomes, not through raising charges, but through preventing tax evasion," Tayyebnia added.
"The goal will be achieved through establishing a comprehensive databank on tax affairs," the minister said.
Edited by CN