TEHRAN – President of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Gholam-Hossein Shafeie, said the country’s industrial sector is in dire need of technological improvement and modernization , reported the ICCIMA portal.
Speaking at a meeting with members of the House Planning and Budget Committee on Saturday, Shafeie said upgrading technology and modernizing machinery is a big need of the industrial sector, which will be practically in a deadlock with the cancellation of the tax exemption for the import of machinery.
Referring to the challenges of the industrial sector in the current economic conditions of the country, the head of ICCIMA said: “One of our important problems in the production and industrial sector is the serious technological gap compared to to global competitors. On the other hand, the depreciation of the machines has led to a significant increase in production costs and even more difficult competitive conditions.
Mentioning a decision to cancel the tax exemption for imports of industrial machinery, the official said that this issue has raised serious concerns for the country’s productive sector because if importers of machinery are not exempted from paying the tax, it will not be economically justifiable for them to continue to do so.
“Although there are discussions to change this decision and some measures have also been taken, there is still a serious concern in this regard for the productive sector of the country, and the parliament can play a very important role in this regard. “, added Shafeie.
Referring to the possibility that the JCPOA talks will lead to an agreement, the ICCIMA head stressed the need to have foresight in this regard and underlined: “if an agreement is reached, the result for the country will be the increase in oil revenues; thus, it is feared that the same strategies as before will be followed and that the revenues generated will not be sufficiently allocated to the development of the productive sectors and infrastructures.
“The Plan and Budget Committee should take the necessary measures in this regard so that the mentioned capital is directed to the production and infrastructure sectors,” he stressed.
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