TEHRAN, Iran, Feb.9
Trend:
Increasing taxes and trading costs during economic recession and negative economic growth are not meaningful, said Minister of Road and Urban Development.
"Major part of economy is run by public sector and increasing taxes would not be fair; if taxes continue to rise, the pressure on private sector and people will increase," said Abbas Akhondi, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"As far as I know, Iran's next year [starts March 21,2020] budget plan has a large deficit, and country's economic decline was 9 percent in 2018. In this situation the costs of economic interactions should not increase," the official added.
"The priority is organizing foreign trade, reducing tariffs, solving banking issues, and accession to the World Trade Organization and eventually the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," Akhondi said.
"The free economic zones are platforms for export and trade development; however, free zones are not the only solution for foreign trade and combating sanctions," the minister added.
"The economic sovereignty means to accept the market rules and private sector; therefore the government shall not intervene in economy," he said.