Page 34 - IRANRptAug22

Iran’s budget deficit at 9.5% in 2020
attractions of a country with a population of 84mn people.
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Iranian foreign minister Amir Abdollahian said: “We demand guarantees that include not imposing any new sanctions, and not reimposing sanctions after lifting them under any pretext.”
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) estimated that Iran hit a government budget deficit of nearly 9.5% in 2020 from a 5.5% deficit in 2019. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), meanwhile, has also calculated that Iran's total budget deficit would be around $58bn.
6.1.1 Budget dynamics - tax issues, revenues
Evasion ‘costing Iran’s tax authority sum equivalent to $4.5bn, around half its revenue’
Tax evasion is costing the Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) an estimated Iranian rial 1,350 trillion ($4.5bn at the free market exchange rate), or around half its annual revenue. That’s according to INTA chief Davud Manzur who this week outlined how the government is continuing to fund new data systems that should enable officials to go after many more tax cheats.
The draft state budget for the next Persian calendar year (starts March 21, 2022) currently progressing through parliament, meanwhile, not only includes financial provisions for improved information technology, it also targets sweeping taxes at owners of luxury properties, including homes that are worth over IRR 100bn (around $330,000).
Manzur said INTA was readying the data banks would need to enforce the new taxes from early March. Additionally, he noted that a previously announced tax to be imposed on owners of homes kept vacant would soon go into effect using data to be submitted by the housing ministry.
Expanding taxation revenues is in line with the government’s efforts to diversify the economy away from crude oil export revenues. Officials are also mindful of offsetting financial impacts of US sanctions on the economy.
INTA said its tax receipts for the Persian calendar year that ended in March 2021 amouned to IRR 1,920 trillion ($7.6bn based on the exchange rate at the time).
34 IRAN Country Report August 2022 www.intellinews.com