TEHRAN – Iran’s annual tax income is anticipated to reach 4.54 quadrillion rials (about $15.655 billion) by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2023), head of Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) announced on Monday.

Making the remarks in the ninth edition on the national conference of Resistance Economy with the title of “Tax System; Fair and Intelligent", Davoud Manzour said Iran’s tax revenue stood at 3.06 quadrillion rials (about $10.551 billion) in the past year.

Stating that the tax system is considered one of the main ways to strengthen the economy, Manzour clarified: “The biggest damage to the country's economy, especially in the sanctions era, is the pressure that is placed on the financing of the government and makes the government unable to perform its duties.”

The official went on to say that tax as a clean and stable source of income is the best way to finance the government to provide services and play its role and social responsibility.

As announced recently by Mehdi Movahedi, head of INTA’s Education, Research, and Planning Office, Iran’s tax incomes during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22) rose 63 percent compared to the same period of time in the previous year.

According to Movahedi, his organization has collected 2.709 quadrillion rials (about $7.1 billion) of taxes during the seven-month period of this year, while the figure was 1.66 trillion rials (about $5.75 billion) in the same time span of the past year.

During the first seven months of the present year, INTA has managed to realize the tax income plan for the current period by 102 percent.

In late October, the INTA head said the government’s average monthly tax collections have increased by 80 percent in the current Iranian calendar year as compared to the previous year.

According to Manzour, last year every month about 250 trillion rials (about $864 million) of taxes were collected on average, while the figure has reached 450 trillion rials ($1.55 billion) in the current year, Tasnim news agency reported.

According to the official, INTA has been taking serious measures for battling tax evasion so that the organization has discovered more than 170 cases over the past year and the violators have been faced with heavy penalties.

There are many methods of tax evasion and one of the most common is the creation of shell companies, he explained.

“Unfortunately, there are many problems in the regulations and laws regarding company establishment and there is no necessary strictness. We see such cases with regard to business cards and credit cards as well,” the official added.

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Photo: INTA Head Davoud Manzour