TEHRAN- Iran gained 90 percent of its projected tax income for the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-Setemebr 21), IRNA quoted Iranian Tax Administration Deputy Head for Direct Tax Affairs Nader Jannati as saying on September 21.

The official also noted that tax income accounts for seven percent of Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) which should be increased to 10 percent according to the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021).
As Kamel Taqavinejad, the head of Iranian Tax Administration, announced in May, the administration could collect 90 percent of its expected tax income in the past Iranian year of 1394 (which ended on March 19, 2016).

President Hassan Rouhani’s economic strategy is to significantly reduce the government’s dependency on oil and instead collect tax more systematically.

According to the budget bill for the current Iranian calendar year, tax incomes are projected to rise by 14 percent from the last year’s 880 trillion rials (about $25.4 billion) to one quadrillion rials (about $28.9 billion), Iran's Management and Planning Organization Director Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said in January.

As reported in late September 2015, the Iranian government could manage to earn more from tax receipts than oil revenues for the first time in almost half a century.

MA/MG