BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 25. Iran imported about 30 tons of gold bars worth about $1.94 billion in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2023, through March 19, 2024), the director general of Iran's Customs Administration, Mohammad Rezvani-Far said, Trend reports.
According to him, gold bars accounted for 3 percent of Iran's product imports in value terms last Iranian year.
Rezvani-Far stated that gold bars were mainly imported through Iran's Imam Khomeini International Airport Customs (74.6 percent), Bashmaq Customs (16 percent), and Tabriz Customs (7 percent).
Meanwhile, the US-imposed sanctions on Iran have made it extremely difficult for foreign cash (US dollars) to enter the nation. Iran prefers to escape sanctions by using other measures. In this sense, the Iranian government has created incentives for non-oil exporters to bring gold bars into the nation rather than foreign cash.
To note, the United States slapped fresh sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Since then, sanctions have been imposed on more than 700 banks, corporations, and individuals that export Iranian oil. The sanctions prompted the freeze of Iran's assets abroad.
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