Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 8
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The Iranian administration has approved a bill, according to which everyone will be allowed to import cars instead of scrapping old cars.
All kinds of cars, both passenger cars and heavy vehicles, can be imported in exchange for scrapping old cars, Iran's Fars news agency reported on March 8.
Prior to this, just owners of passenger cars and van were allowed to import cars using government resources.
Meanwhile, The Iranian parliament has approved that duty on imports of cars to be increased by 5 percent of the freight on board (FOB) price. The surplus income to the ceiling of 1500 billion rials (about $55 million) will be used to buy ambulances by the ministry of health.
In February, Iranian MP Ali Alilou of the Parliament's Industries and Mines Committee said Iran was planning to cut all car import tariffs to zero in two year's time.
Iran has managed to save up to seven million liters of gasoline through renovating its transport fleet and scrapping illegal fuel cards.
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Shariatmadari said in December that some 70,000 old cars were scrapped in the past Iranian year (March 2013-March 2014), and some 100,000 cars will be scrapped in the current Iranian year (ending on March 20, 2015). Moreover, a large number of illegal fuel cards were destroyed.