TEHRAN - The 11th gathering of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA)’s board of representatives was held on Tuesday to discuss various trade issues including problems that traders are facing in customs.

Chaired by the TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari, the meeting was attended by numerous officials including the Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Mehdi Mirashrafi, as well as Mohammad Lahouti, the head of Iran Exports Confederation, TCCIMA portal reported.

Speaking in the meeting, Khansari pointed to the country's nine-month economic indices, saying that the economic growth for the first nine months of this year (March 21-December 21, 2019) was minus 7.6 percent, and it was zero without considering the oil sector. 

“The agriculture sector grew 3.2 percent, the construction sector 9.6 percent and services 0.2 percent, while the mines and industrial sectors saw a negative growth of 16.6 percent and oil and gas extraction registered a 37 percent negative growth, affecting the overall growth index,” he explained.

In another part of his speech, Khansari pointed to the challenge regarding the deposition of goods at customs and said: "It has been almost 10 months that large quantities of goods have been deposited at customs and haven’t been cleared, traders are facing various problems in customs including the lack of timely decision-making." 

Elsewhere in the gathering, Lahouti who is also the head of TCCIMA export promotion committee, underlined some of the major problems that the country’s exporters are facing including lack of liquidity and also unnecessary regulations and tax laws.

Further in the gathering, IRICA Head Mehdi Mirasharrafi presented a report on the performance of the country’s customs.

He also put the country’s exports in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2019-February 19, 2020) at 125 million tons, adding that in the mentioned period 31 million tons of goods were imported into the country, which means that exports have been four times greater than imports.

EF/MA