TEHRAN – Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mines and Business Mohammad Shariatmadari on Thursday said that fluctuations in the local forex market in the past four months have tripled the number of applications for import licenses worth $250 billion dollar, radio Farda reported.
Describing the figure as “unbelievable”, Mohammad Shariatmadari has insisted that a “number of” profiteering individuals are trying to “fish in troubled waters”, referring to the current currency and economic crisis.
The figure of $250 billion is almost triple of Iran’s annual oil income.
Import applications mean requests by importers to receive cheaper, subsidized dollars or other hard currencies from the government.
According to Radio Farda, Four months later the Minister of Industry said, the process must stop and from now on, the “qualification” and “business record” of whoever applies for import dollars should be thoroughly vetted.
Otherwise, Shariatmadari has admitted that the problem of these “uncommon” number of requests will never be addressed.
Shariatmadari’s remarks are published at a time that the Islamic Republic’s Police repeatedly reports that it has arrested scores of individuals charged with “disrupting forex market” and benefitting from subsidized dollars for importing goods and selling them on the basis of dollar’s value in the much higher, non-governmental forex market, Radio farad reported.
Meanwhile, commander of Basij militia, General Gholamhossein Gheibparvar has maintained that his forces have discovered several warehouses full of cars, rice and construction material across the country and arrested (an unknown number of) individuals who intended profiteering through hoarding goods.
Iran’s judicial spokesman has also disclosed that certain individuals have been arrested and several companies closed down over the alleged abuse of subsidized dollars and price violations on the cellphone market.
Report by Radio Farda stated that according to a list he published recently, certain companies that had received foreign currency at the official rate (42,000 rials per U.S. dollar) to import cellphones, sold their goods at a higher price by taking advantage of the value of the dollar and other currencies on the black market (100,000 rials per dollar).
