TEHRAN – The Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) is going to increase the taxes imposed on cigarette sales by 28 percent in the upcoming Iranian calendar year (starts on March 20, 2020), IRIB reported, quoting an official with the organization.

According to the ITNA’s spokesman, Amir Zamani, the government is expected to earn 20.01 trillion rials (about $476.5 million) from cigarette tax in the next calendar year, 33 percent more than the expected figure for the current year which is set at 15 trillion rials (about $357 million) based on the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan.

The official noted that the cigarette tax revenues have exceeded the figure set in the sixth development plan by about 10 percent in the current year, reaching 16.5 trillion rials (about $392.8 million).

Based on the budget bill, the government also intends to earn 8.08 trillion rials (about $192.5 million) from imposing tax on cigarette imports next year.

President Hassan Rouhani submitted the government’s budget bill to the parliament in early December 2019. 

The proposed budget amounted to about 19.88 quadrillion rials (about $473.3 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials), with a 14-percent rise from the current year’s approved budget.

Based on the budget bill, tax incomes are predicted to be 1.95 quadrillion rials (about $46.42 billion), rising 27 percent from 1.72 quadrillion rials (about $40.95 billion) envisaged in the present year’s budget.

In the face of the U.S. sanctions and the decline in oil revenues, taxation is considered one of the main sources of revenue for the Iranian government next year.

EF/MA