🔶 Import of luxury cars halted by order of Pezeshkian

Mohammad Atabak, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, said on Wednesday, 8 Mehr (30 September), that the import of luxury cars has been halted by order of the president. Atabak added that the ban also applies to Iranians living abroad, and that the government’s priority is to provide “economic cars.”

Atabak said in a session of the Article 90 Commission of the Iranian Parliament that the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade had objected about two weeks earlier to a 100% tariff on luxury cars, and subsequently the import of these cars was stopped.

In the same session, Nasrollah Pezhmanfar, the head of the Article 90 Commission, pointed to the limitations of foreign-currency resources and said that importing expensive cars is what has led to increased pressure on the currency market and capital outflow, and he called for prioritizing the supply of cars for middle-income segments and applicants with genuine need.

The decision has been made while high inflation, an increase in gasoline prices, the decline in the value of the national currency, and rising costs of housing, food and other essential needs have reduced many Iranian families’ purchasing power and made it harder to cover everyday expenses.