Ali Tayebnia told Fars provincial administrative session on Thursday in Shiraz that reforming banking system was a priority for government, and that the country’s tax income had been up 40 per cent.
Tayebnia highlighted ‘improving the business environment’ as a solution for the hard-hit trade and business of the country; “currently, our trade and business face difficult situation which poses challenges to investment attractions; to relieve the trade environment from part of these challenges, we have established volunteer removal of the requirement for investment permits; the unnecessary paper work requires acquiring more than 2,000 different permits for making investments, which is fraught with other problems in administrative terms,” he told the meeting.
“In many countries, the number of required permits is quite few; Iran’s ranking in investment attractions has been 130 last year, and we predict some improvements in the global ranking, reaching to 70 by the end of Rouhani’s government,” Tayebnia added. “Currently, Iran is a popular destination for foreign investors, and by the time, they will gradually come to the country with their investments; a priority is to reform banking system; payment of government debts are well-planned, along with international trade and non-oil exports,” he provided as examples of government measures to facilitate influx of direct investments. “With taxes, we believe that producing sector should not be subject to pressures; we predict rise in tax incomes starting from the next year, and from the current figure of 40 per cent,” he said.
“Rising oil prices directly damage the economy; in a period of great opportunities to effectively use oil income, ironically, the lack of planning and mismanagement increased dependence on other countries; now the most pressing problem is stagflation (inflation and recession at the same time); the government assumed responsibilities with stagflation bordering 45 per cent; now, the annual average is less than 14 per cent, and we predict a declining trend for inflation for the future,” emphasized the minister.