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the news agency on July 30 as saying that authorities had stepped up investigations into suspect taxpayers in recent years and had forced businesses in the country of 80mn to enhance their transparency. Taqavi-Nejad added that by the end of the last Iranian fiscal year (it arrived in April), some 4.86mn tax returns had been filed digitally. In the previous fiscal year, IRR531.5tn was paid into state coffers, an increase of 7.5% y/y.
6.1.2​ Budget dynamics - funding, privatisation
Iran aims to privatise 600 companies in current Persian year
Iran parliament agrees to release IRR10 trillion in assets to pay debt
The head of the Iranian Privatisation Organisation (IPO) has announced that some 600 companies are to be fully or partially sold to private buyers in the 2019/2020 Persian calendar year (started March 21), IBENA reported on April 28.
The Rouhani administration is under growing pressure to allow more assets on to the market at a faster rate so that capital can move from the roiled currency markets and back into the local economy. With the Iranian rial (IRR) severely weakened by the US sanctions assault on Iran’s economy and Washington to launch its attempt at fully shutting down Iran’s oil exports on May 2, the government is under heightened pressure to increase efforts to deliver liquidity.
IPO director Mir Ali Ashraf Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini said that of the current block of companies to go up for sale, all the shares would be available to buyers except for 20% in each case, except where otherwise stated. However, it will be an uphill struggle to sell majority stakes in so many businesses, with Pouri-Hosseini noting that across six months of the previous calendar year, only 55 companies were privatised.
“If we can privatise double or triple this amount, still there would be many companies for sale,” he added.
On April 22, the IPO said 13.36% of Transfo Co., a local electrical transformers company, was sold at IRR6249 a share.
In December, the​ I​ PO notified investors​ of a partial block sale of 68% of the Bistoun Petrochemical Company. Final details of that sale were not available.
The Iranian parliament has agreed to release IRR10 trillion ($67mn at the free market rate) from the sale of assets and shares owned by the state, according to IBENA on February 18.
The Rouhani administration has been looking at several options to raise cash to pay for essential services and investment in infrastructure while US sanctions remain on the country. Many assets previously thought of as unsellable have been proposed for privatisation including state-owned refineries​ ​and football clubs​.
However, at the official government rate of IRR4,700 to the euro the assets released would be valued at €212.7mn, which will be the figure the government states.
The release of assets come as part of a raft of packages included in the 2019-20 year budget which begins at the start of the Persian New Year on March 21. The parliament did not specify which shares or firms it will release to the market as part of its agreed proposal.
32​ IRAN Country Report​ November 2019 www.intellinews.com