BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 1
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Mobile phones accounted for the main part of Iran’s total imports in terms of value, during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through November 21, 2021), the Spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Rouhollah Latifi said, Trend reports citing the administration.
According to Latifi, Iran imported $2.5 billion worth of mobile phones in 8 months, which is an increase of 111 percent, compared to the same period last Iranian year.
The official added that mobile phones import to Iran is carried out with foreign currency determined under the NIMA exchange rate.
“Meanwhile, Iran imported $2 billion worth of corn over eight months, which ranked second in Iran’s total imports for the reporting period,” he said.
As reported, Iran imported 26.5 million tons of goods worth $32 billion, during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through November 21, 2021), which is an increase of 38 percent in value and 21 percent in volume, compared to the same period last Iranian year.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has created a NIMA system in 2018 for exporters to sell a portion of their export earnings to banks to eliminate the shortage of foreign currency in the country for various reasons (sanctions, economic situation, etc.). In this system, exporters who earned more than 1 million euros from export a year must sell a portion of their export earnings to banks at the NIMA rate. Later, banks used to sell foreign currency to importers for the import of several products at this rate.
The Central Bank of Iran has not imposed rules on exporters that earned from export less than 1 million euros a year.
Those with total exports of one to three million euros per year are required to offer 50 percent of their received foreign exchange from the government through the NIMA system.
The exporters with annual exports of three to 10 million euros are obliged to offer 70 percent. Those with exports of above 10 million euros per year must offer 90 percent of the received foreign exchange at NIMA.
According to the official exchange rate in Iran, $1 equals 42,000 Iranian rials and 1 euro equals 47,000 rials.
The SANA system is a system introduced by the Central Bank of Iran to the currency exchange offices, where the price of 1 euro is currently 296,000 rials, and the price of $1 is 262,000 rials.
NIMA is a system intended for the sale of a certain percentage of the foreign currency gained from export. The price of 1 euro in this system is currently 265,000 rials, and the price of $1 is 235,000 rials.
In Iran, the official exchange rate is used for the import of some essential products.
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