TEHRAN - The 98th dialogue council of the government and the private sector was held in Tehran on Monday, in which issues pertaining to the supply and clearance of basic goods from customs were the main subject of discussion.

Senior officials including the Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafeie, and Chairman of the Parliament Economic Committee Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi attended the event which was chaired by Iran’s Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand, ICCIMA portal reported.

Speaking in the meeting, Dejpasand underlined some of the issues related to the importing and clearance of basic goods from the country’s customs and noted that considering the current economic conditions, the government has decided to ensure that basic goods and raw materials would not be deposited at customs.

“Some of the commodities deposited at customs are perishable, so taking necessary measures to clear them is essential,” Dejpasand said.

Further in the meeting, Pourebrahimi also touched upon the issue of clearing goods from the customs of the country’s free economic zones, saying: “the issue of clearing goods from free zones, especially the zones which cannot be separated from the mainland, is a stimulus for foreign exchange demand and a concern.”

He also called on the government to take special measures for managing the forex market and the exchange rates, as well as the export policies and commercial ID card renewal issues.

--- State-owned shares worth $7.8b transferred to private sector in H1

Elsewhere in the meeting, Economy Minister Dejpasand pointed to his ministry’s efforts for offsetting the budget deficit and funding development projects in the current year and noted: “There were some concerns over the budget deficit in the first half of the year that could lead to an increase in the taxes or government borrowings from the central bank, however, with the measures taken, we were able to offset the shortage from oil revenues by selling bonds and offering the shares of companies and government assets.”

According to the minister, the shares of government-owned companies worth 330 trillion rials (about $7.85 billion), as well as 900 trillion rials (over $21.4 billion) worth of treasury bonds, were issued in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21), IRNA reported.

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Photo: Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand (R) and ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie