Senior Officials Will Have Final Say on Joining FATF
Senior Officials Will Have Final Say on Joining FATF
Iran's minister of economic and financial affairs announced a sharp increase in government income compared to last year, which has seen a 63% rise.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –Iran’s minister of economic and financial affairs announced a sharp increase in government income compared to last year, which has seen a 63% rise.

Speaking at his press conference, Ehsan Khandozi said that the total income of the government in the first nine months of the Iranian year was 917 thousand billion tomans, of which 88% was the figure approved by the budget. “This number has increased by 63% compared to last year.”

Government data showed earlier that Iran’s income from the export of oil and oil products rose by 11 times last year which ended in March and eight times in the five months of this year.

Khandouzi went on to say that the issue of investment and its amount have been addressed and solved in the current administration.

Delivering his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Khandouzi told reporters that the lowering of investment was considered one of the significant variables that hindered the growth of production in the country.

He said: “In the past few years, we experienced many ebbs and flows, but due to the former administration’s performance, we had a decrease in investment and even in some years with a decrease in the capital amount in the country.”

He said that during the first six months of the Iranian year 1400 and even in the autumn of the next year, when the new administration kicked off its work, the country was coping with the challenge, but within the first six months of the current year the country witnessed a 3.9% investment rate.

The Economic Spokesman of the government also touched upon Iran’s joining the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF): “This will be decided by Iranian senior officials and authorities.”

In response to a question about the consequences of publishing news about Iran joining FATF, which was immediately denied, Khandouzi said: “Ask the consequences of publishing that news from those who published it, not us. We neither published news nor wanted to do.”

He added: “It was quoted from one of the members of the Financial Intelligence Center (FIC), which was not the right thing to do.”

Khandouzi pointed out that the Ministry of Economy, together with other relevant bodies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, should review Iran’s joining the FATF.”

 

“The Ministry of Economy has not yet announced any opinion on the matter, and we will present our proposals after reviewing them, and the decision to join or not to join FATF, will be announced by senior officials and bodies in the Islamic Republic,” the economic spokesman of the government went on to say.

Khandouzi also mentioned the problem of border trade in the press conference and said: “A new bill has been drafted in this regard, in which border dwellers and cross-border porters can import a certain amount of goods and the tax that will be charged from them will be spent in their own provinces.”