TEHRAN- According to the latest data released by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), tax income in the period from March 21, 2017 to February 20, 2018 exceeded 76.1 trillion rials (about $1.7 billion) than the earned oil exports revenue, IRNA reported on Sunday.

Iranian government earns budget from various sources including the revenues and offering capital assets and divesting financial assets to the private sector, the report said.

During the said period, the government could gain 1.98 quadrillion rials (about $44 billion) of revenues, of which 797.7 trillion rials (about $17.7 billion) were tax income.

Some 721.6 trillion rials (about $16 billion) were earned from divesting capital assets, the share of oil revenues stood at 718.5 trillion rials (about $15.9 billion), the report added.

Offering financial assets let the government gain 607.2 trillion rials (about $13.4 billion).

Iran gained some 526.4 trillion rials (about $11.7 billion) of tax income during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (ended on October 22, 2017), Tasnim news agency reported in mid-December, 2017.

According to the report, the Iranian government could manage to collect $12.6 billion of the total 689.2 trillion rials (about $15.31 billion) anticipated to be earned in the said period. 

The gained tax income registered a 2.7 percent growth in comparison with the same time span in the preceding year. 

As planned the government is to collect 1.16 quadrillion rials (about $25.7 billion) of tax income by the end of the present Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2018).

The share of tax revenues in Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) has reached eight percent, Head of National Tax Administration Kamel Taqavinejad announced in early March.

The official said the figure should reach 11 percent by the end of the country’s Six Five-Year National Development Plan (March 2021).

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

HJ/MA