Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
The Iranian government’s revenues through selling cigarettes registered a rise by 21.9 percent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Nov. 21, 2017).
The government revenues of indirect taxes imposed on cigarette sells stood at 2,700 billion rials, which is equal to 87 percent of the forecasted figure for the 8-month period (3,100 billion rials), based on data released by Iran’s central bank (CBI).
The figure was 2,300 billion rials and 1,700 billion rials for the 8-month period of previous fiscal years (March-November 2016 and 2015).
The Iranian budget foresees 4,600 billion rials of revenues for government via taxes imposed on the sale of cigarettes for the current fiscal year (to end on March 2018).
The tax revenues for the first eight months of the current fiscal year was equal to 0.5 percent of overall taxes revenues in the period.
Iranian administration earned 299.8 trillion rials from direct and 300.8 trillion rials from indirect taxes during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
About 55 billion cigarettes are smoked in Iran annually.
Iran imported 1.97 billion cigarettes during the first eight months of current fiscal year, 43 percent less year-on-year.
Iran’s 12 cigarette producing plants also produced 30.53 billion cigarettes in the 8-month period, 10 percent more compared to the same months of the preceding year.
Reportedly over 1.34 billion cigarettes were smuggled into the country during the same time span.
The Iranian administration seriously follows a plan to domestically produce foreign cigarette brands, in order to cut down the imports.