TEHRAN – Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand said on Tuesday that the government is providing especial facilities for foreign companies that bring in over $250,000 of investment into the country, IRNA reported.

“Following a plan for supporting foreign investment, we have provided facilities for attracting foreign investments over $250,000, and on this basis we are expected to have a good performance in foreign investment this year,” Dejpasand said in a press conference.

The official noted that in the Q4 of the last Iranian calendar year (December 21, 2018-March 20, 2019), nearly $4 billion of foreign investment was attracted in various areas while the figure stood at $1.7 billion in last year’s first half (March 21 -September 22, 2018).

He said the government managed to collect 1.09 quadrillion rials (about $25.952 billion) of tax revenues during the past Iranian calendar year of 1397 (ended on March 20, 2019), which means the country’s annual tax income plan has come true by 97 percent.

The official also informed that his ministry has called on the customs administration to take all necessary measures in order to facilitate non-oil trade and to make it easier for traders to export their commodities.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the finance minister stated that despite the U.S. sanctions, the country’s non-oil revenues did not decrease significantly.

“So far, in the first three months of the current year (March 21-June 21) non-oil exports have also had an acceptable amount,” he added.

Dejpasand finally noted that the government has prepared a 12-fold strategic program for bartering oil revenues in order to keep the country’s foreign trade afloat.

He didn’t provide more details regarding this program.

Earlier in May, President Hassan Rouhani ordered executive bodies to take immediate steps to remove obstacles to domestic and foreign investment in the country.

The decisions came as the U.S. has introduced the harshest ever sanctions against Iran in line with the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” on Iran, a policy that analysts and politicians say is intended to strangulate Iran.

Ebrahim Raeisi, the judiciary chief, also said in late May that all officials are duty bound to support businessmen and entrepreneurs.

During a meeting with a number of businessmen, Raeisi said that under the current situation in which the United States has waged an economic war on Iran, all officials and state bodies are duty bound to fully support businessmen and entrepreneurs.

EF/MA