TEHRAN- The head of Iran’s National Tax Administration (INTA) announced that the average tax rate in Iran is 28 percent in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), IRNA reported.

Omid-Ali Parsa also said that the figure will be less in the deprived provinces such as Lorestan and Ilam which will have an average tax rate of 15 percent.

He put the figure at 32 percent for Tehran Province.

The official has also announced that the country’s monthly tax income has reached over 120 trillion rials (about $2.857 billion).

He said the mentioned amount includes both direct and indirect taxes.

Parsa reiterated that all governmental bodies should cooperate in achieving the targeted tax revenues.

Saying that the Iranian government collects eight percent of the people’s income for the public expenditures, while the figure is 30 percent in the world, the official stressed, “Now that the oil revenue is reduced, the government has no income rather than collected taxes; so the people should cooperate in this due.”

Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand said on June 7 that the government considers tax as the main source of income for managing the country’s economy in the absence of oil revenues.

“Currently, the most important method of financing for the country's economic management is taxing, and this has placed a huge burden on the tax administration,” Dejpasand said in a statement on the occasion of national tax day.

Taxes are the safest, healthiest, and most sustainable source of income for the government, and with proper planning, these revenues can have a positive impact on the country’s sustainable development, the official said.

Strengthening the economy against external shocks and threats, eliminating social inequalities, equitable distribution of wealth in society, and increasing welfare, prosperity, and security were also mentioned by Dejpasand as the benefits of tax incomes.

Iran’s tax revenue has increased 31 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), the head of National Tax Administration has announced.

Putting the country’s tax income at 1.43 quadrillion rials (about $34.04 billion) in the previous year, the official said, “We could collect 250 trillion rials (about $5.9 billion) as value-added tax (VAT)”, IRIB reported.

Parsa also said that the country has gained projected tax income by 102 percent in the past year, and put the average tax income growth at 21 percent during the previous five years.

The head of the National Tax Administration further mentioned preventing tax evasion as one of the prioritized programs of INTA.

As the oil sale accounts for just seven percent of the country’s income in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20), the revenues gained from elimination of hidden energy subsidies as well as increased tax incomes will replace oil revenues, according to Head of Iran's Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) Mohammad Bagher Nobakht.

“This does not mean a rise in tax income; but by setting new tax bases and eliminating unnecessary exemptions at a time of economic warfare, more tax revenues will be provided,” the official had said in late November 2019.

MA/MA