Tehran, Iran, June 25
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Kamel Taghavinejad, head of Iran’s Tax Affairs Organization, has said the organization identified 300,000 new taxpayers so far unknown to the taxation system.
They were identified thanks to and after the Office on Money Laundering and Tax Fraud was created in the organization, he told IRIB news agency June 25.
They have been made to pay 9.9 trillion rials ($300 million), Taghavinejad said, adding 33 trillion rials ($1 billion) more tax collection is underway.
The Iranian government is making effort to mend a transparency problem - the heritage of long years of international sanctions and weak domestic monitoring.
The Financial Action Task Force on June 23 decided to continue the suspension of counter-measures against Iran, “in light of Iran’s demonstration of its political commitment and the relevant steps it has taken in line with its Action Plan.”
The FATF urged Iran to fully address its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies.
Transparency has turned into a crucial issue for Iran to integrate into the world financial system after the country was rid of sanctions in 2016.
Iran’s tax revenues amounted to 746.9 trillion rials ($23 billion based on official rate of 32,417 rials per each USD) in the first 10 months of the previous Iranian fiscal year (March 20, 2016-Jan. 20).
The figure indicated an increase by 28.4 percent as compared to the same period of the preceding year. Iran’s gross domestic product stands at $425 billion.