According to Total News, citing the Iran Online Chamber, in the recent meeting of the working group of the dialogue council, private sector activists were appointed to revise the list of mineral products, metal and non-metal mineral industries, oil, gas and petrochemical products in crude and semi-crude form, as well as the amount of their export duties to summarize their proposals and provide them to the government.
The members of the specialized working group of the Dialogue Council, in the latest meeting, requested to revise the list of mineral materials and products and metallic and non-metallic mineral industries, oil, gas and petrochemical products in the form of raw and semi-raw materials subject to taxes and export duties with the presence of representatives from the Iran Chamber, Ministry of Economic Affairs and finance and some organizations and unions in the field of mining, oil, gas, petrochemical and industries.
In explaining the topic of this meeting, paragraph (Z) of note 6 of the budget law of 1402 was mentioned. On the one hand, it was emphasized that in order to implement the knowledge-based production jump law, and on the other hand, to develop the production value chain and pass through raw materials, the export of all mineral materials and products, metal and non-metal mining industries, oil, gas and petrochemical products listed in the approval letter of the Council of Ministers, is subject to income tax and since the beginning of 1402, half a percent is added to the export value of these goods as export duties.
Following the announcement of the Council of Ministers’ approval and the 1402 budget, some unions and associations in this area requested to review the definition of raw and semi-raw materials and some products and the amount of export duties.
According to the activists of the private sector in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical, mining and metal and non-metal mining industries, according to Article (23) of the Law on Permanent Development Orders and Article (37) of the Law on Removing Obstacles to Competitive Production, the imposition of any export duties on permitted surplus goods is prohibited on the domestic needs, therefore, the imposition of taxes will damage the goal of the legislator in the stability of the economic environment, support for production, foreign exchange and employment.
They believe that the announced list of raw and semi-raw materials in 1401 and the duties set in 1402 were prepared unprofessionally, and even final products are included in this list, and the concepts and definitions provided regarding raw and semi-raw materials are not clear and precise.
On the other hand, according to economic activists, the goal of the legislator in clause (Z) of note (6) of the 1402 budget is to provide resources for the development of knowledge-based value chains with the return of these resources from half-percent taxes; But in the approval letter of the Board of Ministers, heavy duties have been imposed on a wide range of products that knowledge-based companies do not have the power to absorb.
In the mentioned note, the legislator has specified to receive duties of half percent of the export value; imposing duties more than half a percent is in practice contrary to the budget law, so the directive should be amended accordingly. In addition, it seems that the determination of duties more than half a percent is determined only to earn the government’s income. Also, the retroactive effect of this decree will cause a wide range of producers to suffer.
It should be noted that the production of the products included in the list has been carried out under the exploitation licenses issued by the legal authorities, that in some products, the production is in excess of the internal needs and there are no customers when they are offered on the stock market, so it is necessary to issue them, but declaring heavy duties of 20% and above in industries whose profit is usually less than this amount means stopping production in excess of domestic needs and is in conflict with the upstream policies of the country in the field of production and export.
In addition, based on Articles (2) and (3) of the Business Environment Improvement Law, the government and executive bodies are required to inquire and take into account the opinion of the private sector and related organizations when formulating or amending regulations, directives and executive procedures; However, the comments of the Iran Chamber were not taken into account when drafting the guidelines and were only heard, and the opinions of the organizations as beneficiaries of this matter were not taken into consideration.
In this regard, the Research Center of the Iran Chamber, after the notification of the mentioned instruction and according to the request of the economic activists of the private sector, has sent a letter from the Iran Chamber to the President.