TEHRAN- Tax exemption in the country’s free trade zones (FTZs) will increase the volume of trade in these zones, an official with Iran’s Free Zones High Council stated.

Speaking in an interview with IRNA on Friday, Ahmad Jamali, the deputy secretary-general of the council for the economic affairs, stressed that the laws and regulations in the free zones, including the tax exemption law, have been set considering the potential for trade and employment in these areas.

Development of existing free trade zones and establishment of new FTZs is currently one of the major economic approaches of Iran and in a bid to attract more investments to these zones Iranian government offers various incentives to the investors.

Tax exemption is one of those incentives which has been offered for more than a decade to the investors in the free zones.

This incentive has been recently criticized by some officials and economists, while there are still many supporters of this exemption.

If the 20-year tax exemption in the country’s free trade zones is removed, the investment making will be limited in these areas, according to Abazar Azarboun, an expert with Iran’s Free Zones High Council.

The expert said that those active in the free zones prefer to do business in these areas rather than the mainland because taxes and duties do not limit their activities there, but if there are no such incentives, investment making in the free zones will be risky for them, IRNA has previously reported.

MA/MA