During 2023.. 30% of Iraq’s imports “evaded the tax” and were financed by the “parallel market”
During 2023.. 30% of Iraq’s imports “evaded the tax” and were financed by the “parallel market”
01-29-2024 | 03:38
Al-Sumaria News – Special
Throughout the past year, economic experts suggested that the rise in the dollar exchange rates in the parallel market was due to merchants buying dollars from the parallel market for the purpose of importing, because they could not obtain the dollar from the Central Bank of Iraq to finance their trade.
The reasons for their inability to do so vary for several reasons, including that the countries from which they import are banned from the dollar, led by Iran, or that merchants do not want to submit papers and proofs to the Central Bank of Iraq in exchange for obtaining the dollar at the official rate, because that will force them to pay taxes to the country in which they are. Basically, they evade it, especially with regard to the trade in cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, whose taxes are double and large.
From this standpoint, “Al-Sumaria News” conducted a digital review of the difference between the volume of Iraq’s imports during 2023 compared to the volume of the Central Bank’s transfers from the dollar.
Financial data for buying and selling foreign currency show that the Central Bank of Iraq bought $64 billion in foreign currency from the Iraqi Ministry of Finance, and in return sold only $33.5 billion of it.
Total sales were divided into $25.1 billion in foreign transfers, compared to $8.4 billion in cash sales for the purpose of travel, which means that 75% of dollar sales went as foreign transfers for the purpose of import.
But what is striking is that external transfers for the purpose of importing are much less than the value of what Iraq actually imported in 2023, as external transfers from the Central Bank are equivalent to only 70% of the volume of what Iraq actually imported in 2023.
As global import data tracked by “Al-Sumaria News” shows, In 2023, Iraq imported more than $36 billion, while the Central Bank transferred only $25.1 billion abroad.
This means that approximately 11 billion dollars of imports last year were not made through the Central Bank, but rather from the parallel market, which is equivalent to 30% of Iraq’s imports were made through parallel market dollars. In other words, 30% of Iraq’s imports are not subject to tax during 2023.
alsumaria.tv
