Several Iranian companies complain that the Custom Administration does not permit them to clear their goods at various custom offices and import them to the mainland. Member of Tehran Chamber of Commerce explain their problems in a letter to the Government, saying that several goods at boarders have limited expiration period.
Since the devaluation of Rial in March 2018, the Government tightened the import regulations and banned the import of many different products. The reasoning behind this policy was not to let the foreign currency exits the country.
“There are at least 200 containers of cosmetics and sanitary products at various custom offices waiting for clearance process for 10 months now”, says Masoud Khonsari, the President of Tehran Chamber of Commerce. “The argument of the government regarding not letting the foreign currency to exit does not hold here because all these goods have surely been paid already after nearly a year of waiting. Losing time creates only corruption and increase the financial crisis among the Iranian businesses”.
However, it is not clear if the Government would loosen the regulations or not.
Among 190 countries, Iran has one of the worse scores for starting a business and stands at the 173rd place.