TEHRAN- Iran’s direct tax income reached 275 trillion rials (about $7.77 billion) in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 21), ISNA quoted Kamel Taqavinejad, the head of Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA), as saying on Sunday.

According to Taqavinejad, the raised amount registers a 29 percent increase, compared to the collected tax income in the same period last year.

“In the four months of the current Iranian calendar year, nearly 95 percent of predicated tax revenues in the country’s budget plan has been materialized,” he said. 
 
As the official previously 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 (which began on March 20, 2016)  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.

HJ/MA