TEHRAN – Representatives of the Iranian private sector have criticized the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)’s strict policies on the returning of the export revenues into the Integrated Forex Management System (locally known as NIMA).

In an online meeting of the heads of the country’s chambers of commerce on Sunday, the attendees voiced concern over the central bank's performance and its pressures on the private sector to return export revenues to the country's economic cycle, ICCIMA reported.

The meeting was attended by the ICCIMA board of directors, the heads of provincial chambers of commerce, as well as some of the private sector’s businessmen and entrepreneurs.

According to the participants in this meeting, the continuation of the CBI’s current policies will lead to the withdrawal of real economic actors from the country's economic scene.

They claimed that in the current situation, the confrontation between the private sector and the government is not in the interest of the economy, and the government should not blame the shortage of foreign currency on the private sector.

Speaking in the meeting, the ICCIMA Board Member Keyvan Kashefi noted that the CBI’s list [containing information on the amount of revenues not returned to the country] is not clear.

“Despite the requests of ICCIMA head and also the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA), the Central Bank did not provide us with additional and detailed information,” Kashefi said.

Referring to the CBI’s policy package on the return of export revenues in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), Kashefi said: "despite the fact that the policy package of the Central Bank has recently been approved by the Article 2 Committee, it has obliged exporters to return 80 percent of their export income in the form of foreign currency remittances and 20 percent in the form of banknotes as of the beginning of this year, which is not practical.”

The elimination of the export versus import procedure was another criticism expressed by the ICCIMA board member regarding this package.

Further in the meeting, ICCIMA Deputy Head Masoud Khansari also criticized the CBI’s list and called for transparency in the list in terms of person, company, and the amount of currency that is not returned.

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Photo: ICCIMA Board Member Keyvan Kashefi (2nd L), ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie (C), and TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari (2nd R)