The story of tolls of 250 thousand tomans for foreign tourists The Ministry of Tourism is not in the process!

Tolls for the entry of foreign tourists into the country is a new type of tolls that the parliamentarians went for after increasing the tolls for exiting the country. In recent years, the rate of exiting the country has increased every year. Last year, a 10-euro tax on foreign flight tickets was added to it, and this tax has been implemented this year.

A part of the exit tax was supposed to be allocated to the strengthening of tourism infrastructure, and a 10-euro tax on foreign flight tickets was also imposed based on the development of the country’s international airports. After creating these taxes on foreign trips, now the entry of foreign tourists to Iran has become an excuse to collect new taxes.

Where did the taxes of 250 thousand tomans come from?

The country’s next year’s budget bill was reviewed in the Islamic Council some time ago, and the members of the parliament included a clause in this bill related to the complications of foreign tourists entering Mashhad.

At the end of December, during the review of cases referred by the Consolidation Commission, the parliamentarians approved the supplementary clause 3 of note 10 of the budget bill. This paragraph stated:

According to this resolution, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development must take action to collect 2,500,000 Rials or its currency equivalent from every foreign tourist who enters Mashhad by air. To serve the pilgrims of Thaman al-Hajj (a.s.) and to improve the pilgrimage infrastructure.

Based on this, Mashhad was the first city in the country that was legally allowed to collect tolls from foreign tourists based on the provisions of the budget. Of course, these complications did not cause many reactions and were sent to the Guardian Council for approval along with the budget bill. The spokesman of the Guardian Council announced some time after the Council’s opposition to this resolution and said:

In this section, which is related to collecting tolls from tourists entering Mashhad by air; The Guardian Council did not approve it citing paragraph 9 of article 3 of the country’s constitution and that collecting tolls would cause “unlawful discrimination in tourism destinations”.

A popular turn!

The opposition of the Guardian Council caused this item of the budget to be returned to the Islamic Council. The members of the parliament have now included a non-transparent clause in the country’s next year’s budget by adding a few words to this article to eliminate unfair discrimination in tourism destinations.

In the session of the Islamic Council on Sunday, 23 January 1403, during the hearing of the report of the 1404 Budget Consolidation Commission on the first part of the 1404 Budget Bill of the whole country, in order to resolve the objections of the Guardian Council, they agreed to amend the additional clause 3 of note 10 of this bill as follows:

Additional Clause 3: The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development is obliged to charge the amount of two million five hundred thousand (2,500,000) Rials (or its currency equivalent) from every foreign tourist who enters Mashhad and other tourist destinations from air sources outside the country and to the relevant level. deposit The income sources of this paragraph from the place of the related row in table number (9) are used to provide services to the pilgrims of Saman al-Hajj (a.s.) and to improve the infrastructure of his pilgrimage and other tourist destinations.

In order to solve the objections of the Guardian Council, after the name of the city of Mashhad, the parliaments added the words “other tourist destinations” to this clause. However, there is no explanation about these other destinations and it is not clear that the other destinations in this paragraph are related to the pilgrimage tourism destinations of the country or that such complications are foreseen for all the tourism destinations of the country.

Nothing is certain

The text of the budget is written in such a way that according to it, tolls should be collected from all foreign tourists who entered the country by air. Such a procedure will be a big event in the field of tourism, which has been legalized in complete silence. Nevertheless, the non-reaction of the Ministry of Tourism shows that such an event is in an aura of uncertainty and it is not yet clear that the addition of “other tourist destinations” can be extended to all air tourism entries in the country and all incoming tourists are required to pay this amount. are or another procedure is going to be implemented.

“Moslem Shujaei”, director of the foreign tourism marketing and development office of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, tells “Kejaro” about this resolution:

In the field of collection of these fees, no inquiry has been made from this deputy and we are not informed. The legislator came to the conclusion that tolls should be collected and spent on tourism infrastructure; We agree with this; But it must be transparent. Previously, 30% of the amount of the exit tax was supposed to be spent on the development of tourism infrastructure, and it is not clear at what stage and conditions this allocation is.

The director of the country’s tourism marketing and development office, emphasizing that we should not make travel packages to Iran more expensive, says:

In this article, other tourist destinations are mentioned, it should be clearly specified which tourist destinations are meant except Mashhad, which is mentioned. The details of the process of collecting this tax, which is entrusted to another ministry, should also be specified.

Collecting tolls from foreign tourists is one of the ways for countries to earn money from incoming tourists. These taxes are collected directly in countries with mass tourism in order to generate income for the protection and development of infrastructure. Many countries, in addition to various taxes, collect such taxes from tourists in different ways, including including them on the cost of hotels or plane tickets. Nevertheless, experts always emphasize the negative effects of collecting such tolls, including in destinations that do not have stable conditions in the market.