Hossein Samsami, a member of Iran’s regime parliament (Majlis), announced that from 2018, when U.S. sanctions against Iran’s regime were reimposed, until December 16 this year, individuals who engaged in non-oil exports only once failed to return “the equivalent of 93% of the foreign currency earned from their exports.”
Hossein Samsami, a member of the Majlis Economic Commission, told the state-run Khabar Online news website on Friday, December 26, that of the funds not returned to the country, 31 billion dollars are linked to exporters who carried out exports only once.
He added that this amount of debt is “equivalent to 93% of the foreign currency earned from their exports.”
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Explaining what happened to this amount of money, the parliament member said that by “not returned,” it means the currency “did not return to the country’s official foreign currency cycle.”
Samsami said: “That is, these individuals took their dollars to the free market to be used for smuggling or capital flight, instead of taking them to the Central Bank so the country’s basic needs could be met.”
After the United States withdrew from the JCPOA during Donald Trump’s first presidential term and sanctions were reinstated, especially against Iran’s oil exports, officials of Iran’s regime emphasized non-oil exports.
However, last year, Hossein Salahvarzi, the former head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, said regarding non-oil exports that the non-oil trade balance had turned negative and exports had declined.
He added that between 2011 and 2022, a twelve-year period, sanctions inflicted about 1.2 trillion dollars in damage on the country.
Total non-oil export debt
Samsami also said that total non-oil exports amounted to 335 billion dollars, but 117 billion and 611 million dollars of that had not been returned, equivalent to 35% of total non-oil exports.
This is not the first time this parliament member has reported figures on the debt of non-oil exporters.
In the Persian month of Azar (November 22–December 21), he had also cited non-oil export statistics to report this debt and, referring to the “limitations of foreign currency resources” in the country, said that the “failure to fulfill foreign currency obligations” by some exporters under such conditions had placed additional pressure on the economy and the production cycle.
However, some media outlets published different figures.
On October 10, the state-run Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC, reported that since 2018, about 270 billion dollars in non-oil exports (excluding state-sector exports including oil, electricity, and natural gas) had been carried out, of which about 95 billion dollars, equivalent to 35% of total exports, had not returned to the country.
The report added that since 2022, out of a total of 146 billion dollars in non-oil exports, more than 56 billion dollars, about 38%, have still not returned to the country.
Accusing Ghalibaf of economic corruption
Regarding the impact of such widespread economic corruption on people’s lives, Samsami said: “Have no doubt that people are paying the price of greed and inefficiency from their livelihoods and their dinner tables.”
He added: “The fact that today the price of nuts in the market has reached 14 million rials per kilogram is the result of pricing based on the dollar rate by nut sellers.”
He continued: “This means an unfair price increase has been imposed on people, and on the other hand it has strengthened the trend of smuggling and capital flight, since export currency also ends up in the market.”
He also said regarding the role of the Majlis speaker in this matter: “Ghalibaf has played a prominent role in failing to pursue this issue and in encouraging the government to raise the exchange rate.”
The parliament member said that some statements by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf “send a signal of not returning currency to dollar holders and exporters, and in following this clear signaling, they not only refrain from delivering their currency to the official cycle but sometimes wait to sell it after the exchange rate rises.”
