The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has instructed government ministries not to create restrictions on the imports-against-exports mechanism used by exporters, state media IRNA reported on December 20.

The CBI stated that quota determinations for import order registration with export proceeds as the funding source by the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture or other entities should not disrupt exporters' use of this method within the framework of importing approved goods.

According to clause (b) of article one of the regulations on repatriation of export proceeds (directive number 170623 dated September 15, 2022) and subsequent amendments, the method of importing goods against one's own exports is one of the foreign currency repatriation methods.

The manner in which exporters benefit from this method is described in notes one and two under article eight of the regulations.

If the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, Ministry of Agricultural Jihad or other relevant entities, organisations and agencies have taken action regarding determining quotas for import order registration with export proceeds as the funding source, this regulation should not disrupt exporters' use of this method within the framework of importing approved goods by the relevant entities, organisations and agencies, according to the central bank.

The Office for Handling Export and Import Obligations only prepares and sends export statistics reports and export proceeds repatriation performance obtained from the export proceeds repatriation web service based on customs information at different time intervals according to requests and correspondence from judicial authorities and relevant institutions.

Any utilisation, regulation or issuance of circulars based on such information is at the discretion of relevant institutions, organisations and agencies, and the central bank has no responsibility regarding the list of foreign currency quotas for surplus imports against exports, the bank stated.

The directive follows concerns from exporters that quota systems imposed by government ministries were preventing them from using export earnings to finance imports, disrupting a mechanism designed to encourage foreign currency repatriation whilst supporting international trade flows.