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than 50%, cut the overall subsidies bill for the government.
According to Iran’s budget for this year, one third of the government’s income, or 1,425 trillion rials ($33.9 billion), should come from oil and gas exports.
The budget was based on a forecast crude oil price of $50-$54 per barrel and a US dollar rate of 57,000 rials, meaning the Iranian economy could remain sustainable if exports came to at least 1.5 million bpd.
EU officials also estimate Iran needs to sell 1.5 million bpd to keep its economy afloat. A drop below 1 million bpd could bring hardship and economic crisis.
6.1.1​Budget dynamics - tax issues, revenues
Officials targeting Iranian rial “billionaires” who’ve never filed a tax return
Iran’s tax authorities have said that there are at least 300,000 Iranian rial (IRR) “billionaires” who have no tax file and have never filed a tax return. The director of the National Tax Administration (NTA), Omid Ali-Parsa, told Tehran’s Financial Tribune that the tax authorities have now brought these massive tax evaders into focus and are chasing down their assets and investigating their accounts in the pursuit of back taxes.
The previously ‘forgotten’ tax office was in 2015 given sweeping new powers to investigate the bank accounts of all perceived tax evaders as well as those of their kin. The move caused a certain amount of panic among Iranian business people at the time but officials are yet to make heavy use of the beefed-up powers.
In an interview with state broadcaster IRIB, Ali-Parsa said that the targeted rial “billionaires” “in fact... have no tax records at NTA”.
The tax chief added that the NTA was presently going after the most prominent evaders, including those who earn over IRR200bn (€1.6mn at the free market rate) per annum. Of such individuals already listed as under investigation by NTA, more than 2,000 have never filed a tax return, he noted.
Ali-Parsa also discussed how Tehran province has the most tax evaders in the country. Some 35% of all tax evasion was from people in the province, he said. However, when it came to evaders in the IRR200bn earnings bracket, the proportion increased to 50%.
Iranian tax authorities officially​ c​ ollected unpaid back taxes of some IRR184tn (€1.47bn at the free market rate) in the 2018/2019 Persian calendar year
28​ IRAN Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com