TEHRAN- The head of Iran’s National Tax Administration (INTA) said the country’s planned tax income has been completely collected in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21).

According to Omid-Ali Parsa, the mentioned achievement was realized as a result of the implementation of various programs for smartening the country’s tax collection system, IRNA reported.

“One of the most important achievements of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in recent years has been the smartening of the tax system, the most important outcome of which has been the complete realization of the tax income plan in the previous years,” he said.

The realization of tax income plans in recent years has taken place in the condition that the country is facing severe economic sanctions, he underlined.

“The full realization of tax incomes was achieved without increasing tax rates and putting pressure on current taxpayers, and only by focusing on identifying new taxpayers, combating tax evasion and smart collection of the taxes,” Parsa added.

According to Parsa, Iran’s tax revenue increased 31 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

Putting the country’s tax income at 1.43 quadrillion rials (about $34.04 billion) in the previous year, the official said, “We could collect 250 trillion rials (about $5.9 billion) as value-added tax (VAT)”.

The country also managed to collect 1.09 quadrillion rials (about $25.952 billion) of tax revenues during the Iranian calendar year of 1397 (ended on March 20, 2019), showing that the country’s annual tax income plan came true by 97 percent.

EF/MA