TEHRAN - The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) is offering new facilities for the importers of basic goods in order to facilitate the clearance of such goods from the country’s customs, IRIB reported.

According to IRICA Deputy Head Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, from now on, payment of import duties on basic goods will be made at the end of customs formalities.

“One of the reasons for the stagnation in the clearance of imported goods was the inability of production units to pay import duties. In this regard, the IRICA has allowed the owners of goods to provide a valid bank guarantee instead of paying import duties,” Orounaqi explained.

Another facility provided by IRICA is the credit clearance of production inputs and basic goods, which enables the owners of goods to clear part of the raw materials of their production units without paying import duties.

By offering the new facilities, the IRICA intends to move the payment of import duties from the stage of declaring goods to the stage of issuing customs licenses, which will be implemented in the next few days, the official said.

“All importers will be able to use this opportunity to deposit the import duties of the declared goods while performing the customs formalities,” he added.

Back in May, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had ordered IRICA to take the necessary measures for the facilitation of the clearance of basic goods deposited at the country’s customs.

Rouhani had issued a decree ordering to investigate and resolve the mentioned issue.

Also in February, the Iranian market regulation headquarters approved six new directives aiming to enhance the clearance of goods at the country’s customs.

The mentioned directives covered a variety of areas including the value of the goods, weight tolerance, abandoned goods, banned goods, and foreign transit.

Also, to prevent the deposition of goods in special economic zones and customs, the IRICA was given the authority to take the necessary actions to clear basic and essential goods for transit, without requiring the owners to place order registration.

Earlier in January, former Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Alireza Razm-Hosseini had said that his ministry was going to take necessary measures to accelerate the clearance of goods at customs to help regulate domestic markets.

EF/MA