Iran Customs IX Exemptions and prohibitions

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Iran customs Law Part IX Exemptions and Prohibitions

This part include two chapters , chapter 1: Exemptions and chapter 2 Prohibitions

Chapter 2 – Prohibitions

Topic 1 – Prohibitions in outright import

Article 122: Outright import of the following goods shall be prohibited:

a. Goods prohibited under holy divine law of Islam and the law;

b. Goods prohibited under the customs tariff schedual or decrees issued under the law;

c. Weapons of any kind, gunpowder, detonators, cartridges, bullets and other ammunitions, dynamite, flammable and explosive materials unless with announcement and consent of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics;

d. Drugs and psychotropic substances of any kind and their precursors, unless with case by case agreement of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education;

e. Transmitter equipment of any kind and their components, unless with case by case agreement of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

f. Special equipment for aerial photography and cinematography unless with the agreement of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics;

g. Eavesdropping systems, micro transmitters and recorders including micro cameras and microphones capable of spying, cover and specific high-speed transmitters, types of goods or systems capable of control and eavesdropping with wire and wireless (monitoring), coding systems that are used for espionage purposes unless with case by case agreement of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Note 1: Importing telecommunication and electronic goods with commercial use specific applications and specific models which are misused for espionage as well as goods and pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, minerals, pesticides and organic compounds which as dual-use goods are misused for bio-terrorism shall be prohibited upon the notification of the Ministry of Intelligence as the case maybe.

Note 2:List and characteristics of the goods referred to in this paragraph and note 1, shall be determined by the Ministry of Intelligence and the latter shall inform the Iran Customs Administration of the case.

h. Media of recorded sound and image contrary to public order, national dignity, public morals and/or formal religion of the country at the discretion of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance;

i. Books, newspapers, magazines, pictures, signs, and any writings contrary to public order, national dignity, public morals and/or formal religion of the country at the discretion of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance;

j. Goods on which, or on their wrapping or on related documents there are words or signs contrary to public order, national dignity, public morals and/or formal religion of the country;

k. Foreign currencies which are drawn out of the legal flow, forged banknotes, stamps and banderole and lottery tickets.

l. Goods on which or on their wrapping there are addresses, names or other characteristics in order to provide grounds for deceiving the consumer and the buyer about the manufacturer, place of manufacture or the original properties or characteristics of such goods.

Note: The goods in which the grounds for deceiving are eliminated under the control and approval of the customs shall be excluded from the scope of the above paragraph.

m. Goods the import of which are prohibited under specific laws.

Topic 2 – Prohibitions on temporary import and internal transit

Article 123: The following prohibitions shall be applied in temporary import and internal transit:

a. Temporary import and internal transit of the goods prohibited by under the law shall be impossible;

b. Temporary import and internal transit of the goods referred to in paragraphs (c) to (f) of article 122 of this law shall be subject to agreement of related ministries;

c. Temporary import of the goods referred to in paragraphs (g) to (h) of article 122 of this law shall be prohibited but internal transit of such goods shall be subject to agreement of related ministries;

d. Temporary import and internal transit of conditionally permissible goods shall be possible with the agreement of the Iran Customs
Administration.

Topic 3 – Prohibitions on external transit

Article 124: List of prohibited goods for external transit and transhipment shall be prepared by the security Council of the Country and approved by the Council of Ministers.

Article 125: External transit, temporary import, transhipment or carriage of goods coastwise of any goods may be prohibited or bounded up to conditions by the Council of Ministers through issuing a decree for the reasons of economic interests or public safety or health.

Topic 4 – Prohibitions on export

Article 126: The following goods shall not have capability of outright export:

a . Goods the export of which are prohibited under holy divine law of Islam and/or the law;

b .Antiquities and cultural heritage at the discretion of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization;

c . Animal or plant products and fauna species

to maintain genetic resources or protect the environment in accordance with the list released by the relevant organizations;

d .Other goods the export of which are prohibited under specific laws.

Article 127: Import and release of goods under either customs procedures which based on health, quarantine, safety, environment, etc. considerations requires the opinion of relevant organizations, shall be subject to obtaining the certificates from the related organizations.

Iran Customs Law : IX Exemptions and Prohibitions

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Iran customs Law : Part IX Iran customs Exemptions and Prohibitions

This part include two chapters , chapter 1: Exemptions and chapter 2 Prohibitions

Chapter 1 – Exemptions

Article 119:In addition to the exemptions referred to in the customs tariffs schedule attached to the bylaw of the law on Import and Export Regulations and other exemptions granted under the laws, decrees, agreements and conventions approved by the Islamic Parliament, the followings shall be exempted from import duties.

a. Goods used and belonged to the heads of foreign states and their accompanions

b.
۱٫ Articles for the of ficial use of foreign diplomatic missions and articles for the personal use of diplomatic agents and members of their
family referred to in article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (the law of which approved on October 13, 1964) on
reciprocal conditions and at the discretion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran Customs Administration as the case may be.

۲٫ Articles for the of ficial use of foreign consular missions and articles for the personal use of foreign consular agents and members of their family forming part of their household, with-in the framework of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (the law of which approved on February 23, 1975) on reciprocal conditions and at the discretion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran Customs Administration as the case may be.

۳٫ Articles for the of ficial use of missions of the United Nations and its af filiates specialized agencies and articles for the use of of ficials and experts of the United Nations serving in Iran within the framework of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (the law of which approved on March 4, 1974) and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies (the law of which approved on March 11, 1974) at the discretion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran Customs Administration as the case may be.

۴٫ Articles for the official use of foreign experts dispatched by virtue of the technical, economic, scientific and cultural assistance of foreign countries and international institutions to Iran in accordance with the bylaw of the privileges and immunities of foreign experts (approved on July 14, 1966) at the discretion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran Customs Administration as the case may be, articles for the official use of inspectors of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) within the framework of the law on accession of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction (approved on July 27, 1997) and other international conventions to which the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran have acceded and/or shall accede, within the provisions of such conventions.

۵٫ Tools and equipment for excavation, chemicals and equipment for technical and scientific operations imported by scientific archaeology teams of the member states of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) for scientific explorations and excavations at the discretion of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and Iran Customs Administration as the case may be.

c. Radar and air navigation aid equipments whose manufacture are not possible within the country, based on the proposal of Iranian Airports Company and agreement of Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and approval of Ministries of Industry, Mines and trade, and Economic Affairs and Finance

d. Military equipment including weapons and ammunitions, military communications equipment, transport, tanks and other armored chariot and special defending means of transports, with the exception of passenger means of transports, raw materials for manufacturing of such items which are purchased based on the written approval of the minister of Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces from the State budget or any other fees dedicated to this end and approved by the Council of Ministers for exclusive use of Ministry of Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces and other armed and police, forces and imported from abroad under such bodies’ name.

Note: The Ministers of Economic Affairs and Finance, and Defense and Logistics of Armed Forces may, for military and security reasons, exempt the imported goods from checks and inform the customs of the case.

e .Specific intelligence equipment and items based on the written approval of the minister of Intelligence;

Note 1: Such items shall be exempted from examination and checks.

Note 2: The provisions of this paragraph shall also include the export of such goods.

f . External transit, returned, transhipment, carriage of goods coastwise, temporary admission and temporary import for Inward processing of goods;

g .Carry-on travel and personal effects, non-used objects and non-commercial foodstuffs accompanied by the passenger.

Note: Maximum exemption value referred to in this paragraph in case of any passenger shall be an amount proposed by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade and approved by the Council of Ministers. In case of an increase in the amount, the excess part shall, considering non-commercial nature, be subject to payment of import duties.

h .Home appliances and personal items of the Iranians residing abroad whose period of their residence in abroad is one year or more and home appliances and objects belonged to foreign nationals holding residence permits who enter into Iran, provided that:

۱٫ entry into the customs territory of such articles and objects have been take placed from one month before until nine months after the arrival of the person. Force Majeure cases shall, at the discretion of Iran Customs Administration, be excluded.

۲٫ Such articles and objects are, at the discretion of Iran Customs Administration, proportional to their social status and dignity and have not commercial nature.

۳٫ They have not enjoyed such exemptions during the past five years.

Note 1:Government employees dispatched abroad to perform a mission for one year or more but summoned from abroad one year be-fore the end of their mission and one-year stay as well as Iranian nationals who are, at the discretion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, unduly repatriated from the country of their residence, shall not be subject to one-year stay condition referred to in this paragraph.

Note 2: The term “home appliances” means articles used by a person and/or the family of the owner of such articles when staying in a place.

Note 3: Persons who enter into the mainland in accordance with relevant provisions of the free zones shall also be subject to facilities referred to in this paragraph.

i. Hand tools and instruments whether electric or non-electric, related to jobs or professions of Iranians working abroad and foreigners
who travel to Iran, provided that:

۱) Involving of such persons in alleged careers, professions or jobs is recognized by the Iranian consular officials in country of their previous residence. In the regions in which there are no Iranian consular officials, submission of a certificate issued by local authorities
shall suffice.

۲) Entry into the customs territory of such tools and instruments have been taken place from one month before untill nine months after the arrival of the persons.

j. Personal items, home appliances and hand tools and instruments of the passed away Iranians residing abroad, by submitting heritage
minutes of meeting drawn up not more than one year after the death by the consular officials of the government of the Islamic Re-
public of Iran and entered into the country not more than one year after the issuance of probate.

Note: In cases where there is no consular official of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the country of residence, local authorities shall, at the discretion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, be competent to draw up minutes of meeting.

k. Medicines and hospital and medical supplies for treatment and health needs of the charity institutions certified by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

Note: The list of such institutions shall be approved by the Council of Ministers upon the proposal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance and approval of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

l. Means of transports including ambulances, relief and rescue command means of transports, relief and rescue special means of transports except passenger means of transports, medicines, hospital and medical supplies, rescue helicopters and boats, foodstuffs, clothings, blankets, tents, prefabricated houses or other necessary articles of relief and rescue imported under the name of Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to help victims of natural disasters or unexpected accidents, or perform missions and functions stipulated in the constitution of the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the discretion of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.

Note: Customs formalities and release of imported and donated goods and items during national and regional emergencies, disasters and unexpected accidents shall be performed as soon as possible.

m. Ancient objects related to Iranian civilization and cultural heritage, whether have already been taken out of the country or discovered abroad at the discretion and approval of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

n. Importing art and cultural objects in order to establish the archives of museums and art and cultural exhibitions, libraries, art and cultural exchanges, and repair and restoration of ancient monuments by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, National Library and Archives Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization as the case may be.

o. Antiquities related to cultural heritage and civilization of other countries imported into the country for establishing and completing public museums at the discretion and approval of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

p. Export goods returned (reimported) identically for any reason in accordance with the provisions of article 65 of this law.

Note:For the purpose of this law, the term “identically” means that the export goods returned to the country have not undergone any action and/or be used in abroad.

q. Reasonable amount of consuming fuel and oil of means of transports when entering and leaving the country.

r. Priceless business samples which at the discretion of the customs have not intrinsic value, and may not be bought and sold in practice, in accordance with the relevant Convention.

Note: In the case of the samples which have intrinsic value, the owner of the goods may, in the presence of customs officers, make them not for sale and then clear them.

s. Medals, insignia and statues granted officially to Iranian nationals by the foreign governments and international institutions.

t. Cargo and passenger aircrafts

u. Catalogs, brochures, calendars, promotional CDs, manuals containing the technical and commercial specifications of the goods, documents relating to the carriage of the goods, technical drawings which have not commercial
nature.

v. Importing production line machinery by the authorized producing, mining and industrial units at the discretion of Ministry of Industry,
Mining and Trade.

Note 1: In compliance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of Part XI of this law under the title of “prohibitions”, the goods referred to in this article shall not be subject to prohibitions and restrictions with the exception of legal and religious prohibitions and restrictions.

Note 2: Exemptions referred to in paragraphs of (h) to (j) of this article shall not include means of transports.

Article 120: In case the goods referred to para-graphs (b), (e), (k), (l) and (n) of article 119 of this law and the goods cleared with the exemption of import duties under specific laws or decrees passed by the Council of Ministers are, outright or by proxy, disposed to another person who is not entitled to enjoy such exemption under the same conditions before the expiration of ten years from the date of their release, the pertaining fees shall, after deduction of an amount proportional to exhaustion and depreciation, be paid.Cases in which under the relevant provisions, another procedure is provided for disposal shall be excluded.

Note: Disposal of the goods referred to in this article before five years from the date of release shall be subject to obtaining import permits.

Article 121: Import duties of the parts and materials imported for use in the manufacture, assembly or packaging objects, materials or devices, in cases where they are subject to a heading of the schedual of tariffs the total import duties rates of which is more than the sum of import duties rates of a ready-made object, such material or device, shall at the discretion of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade be collected on the rates of import duties of related ready-made object, material or device.

Iran Customs Law : Smuggling

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Iran Customs Law : Part VIII Offences and smuggling

This part include two chapters , chapter 1: customs offences and chapter 2: Smuggling

Chapter 2 – Smuggling

Article 113: The followings shall be considered as customs smuggling:

a. Goods entering into or leaving the Customs territory via unauthorized routes without undergoing Customs formalities and also goods entering into the country without doing Customs formalities or via unauthorized routes, detected inside the country.

Note: Unauthorized route means the routes other than those referred to in note 1 of article 103 of this law.

b . Non-leaving of temporary import, temporary import for processing and external transit and returned means of transports or goods from the customs territory within required period, and non-delivery of personal effect within required period unless non-leaving or non-delivery to the customs and/or outright release are not intentionally.

Note: Submitting untrue documents which imply leaving of means of transports and goods from the customs territory or their delivery to the customs shall also be subjected to the provisions of this paragraph.

c. Exiting merchandise from customs premises without declaring or without payment or securing import duties, either it is detected during the exiting from customs premises or after it. If who exits is someone other than the owner of the goods or his/her legal representative, the customs shall take the original goods and in the absence of the goods, shall take its price from the offender, and after collecting required customs fees, shall return it to the owner of the goods and the offender shall be prosecuted in accordance with the criminal laws.

d. External transit goods which are replaced and/or a part of which is removed.

e. Declaring goods whose import or export are forbidden, under the title of permissible goods, conditionally permissible goods with other name. Transit goods shall be subject to note 2 of article 108 of this law.

f. Existence of additional goods along with declared goods not mentioned in submitted documents to the customs, provided that additional goods are not of the same type of declared goods. The additional goods referred to in article 54 of this law shall be excluded from the scope of this article.

g. Declaring goods or means of transport whose outright export are forbidden or conditional under the title of temporary release
export or carriage of goods coastwise and not entered into the customs territory within the required period. Force majeure cases and cases in which non-entrance of goods is not intentional shall be excluded from the scope of this provision.

h. Permissible or conditionally permissible goods which are declared under the title of other permissible or conditionally permissible goods whose customs duties are less, under another name and using untrue documents. Untrue documents means the documents in which mentioned specifications of goods do not match the type and characteristics of the declared goods and/or documents which are forged.

i. Goods which are declared by using the scope of exemption and submitting untrue declaration and/or forged permits to the customs.

j. Replaced goods whose export are forbidden or conditional or less valuable goods replaced by export goods for which an export permit have been issued.

k. Exempted goods transferred to another person without complying with the provisions of article 120 of this law.

Article 114:If the persons who have business cards, smuggle goods, their business cards shall be temporarily suspended or permanently revoked, based on the proposal of Iran Customs Administration and after investigating the case in a commission composed of representatives of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines and Iran Customs Administration.

Note: Revocation of the business card shall not prevent the release of goods for which a letter of credit have been opened or transport of which have been began before imposing deprivation.

Article 115: If in applying customs rules and controls, a part of the cargo is considered to be subject to smuggling provisions, storing or seizing the remaining parts of the goods or its means of transport shall not be authorized, unless at the discretion of the customs it is necessary to store them in order to prove the act of smuggling or collecting fines.

Article 116: Any revising or amending in the detection and seizure minutes of meeting, removing or adding the name(s) of another person(s) in it as detecting agent(s) as well as modifying its contents shall be prohibited and the offender shall be prosecuted by judicial authorities for committing the crime of forgery and dissimulation of government documents, if it is intentionally committed. If forgery and dissimulation also involve another crime, the offender shall also be prosecuted for committing that crime in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.

Article 117: Supporting positive customs documents, to which it may be invoked in cases of possible smuggling, shall be the originals of the following documents:

a. Customs import license

b. Customs permit

c. Deposit receipt which results in release of the goods

d. Bill of purchasing abandoned, seized and unclaimed goods

e. Transit license

f. Returned goods license

g. Temporary import license

h. Temporary import license for processing

i. Transit permit

j. Carriage of goods coastwise license

k. Export license

l. Temporary export license

m. Passenger card issued by the commercial and industrial zones

n. Smart card completed and approved by the customs

Note: Specifications mentioned in such documents should match to the specifications of the goods and considering the type of goods and the manner of their use, the interval between issuance date of the document and detecting date of the goods should be appropriate.

Article 118: Regulations of detection, delivery, formulating smuggling minutes of meeting, seizure of the goods and apprehending the accused, informant, detector, the amount of penalties, manner of collecting, sale and dividing the proceeds of sales and fines thereof, procedures of referring a case to competent authorities and other issues not provided for in this chapter shall be subject to laws and smuggling provisions.

Customs Offences and smuggling

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Iran Customs Law – Part VIII Customs Offences and smuggling

This part include two chapters , chapter 1: customs offences and chapter 2: Smuggling

Chapter 1 – Customs offences

Article 102: Service of any minutes of meeting indicating seizure and con fiscation of goods and detection of offences and smuggling to any person who have submitted the goods declaration to the customs representing the owner of the goods and as a result of investigation such declaration, the minutes of meeting have been drawn up, shall be construed as serving to the owner of the goods.

Article 103: Water means of transports (vessels), whether loaded or empty, which enter into the country’s waters should berth in authorized wharfs or anchor in the authorized harbors and before performance of related procedures, no goods should be loaded or unloaded or leaving wharfs or harbors should not take place. Air-crafts, whether loaded or empty, which enter the country should land in authorized airport and the required customs formalities should be applied to them. Customs formalities of departure aircrafts and their goods should be performed before flying. Road means of transports, whether loaded or empty, should enter into the country through authorized customs roads and enter non-stop into the first border customs and the customs formalities should be applied to them. They should also exit through authorized customs roads.

Note 1: Authorized customs roads, airports, quays and docks for entry and exit of the means of transports, aircrafts, goods and passengers which are subject to customs formalities shall be determined based on the proposal of a committee presided over by the representative of the Ministry of Interior and composed of plenipotentiaries of Iran Customs Administration, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Roads and Urban Development as well as Industry, Mining and Trade, Police, and Vice President for Strategic Planning and Control and shall be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Note 2: Berthing, mooring, descending and entering into and exit of means of transports from unauthorized routs without performing related formalities, except in force majeure cases which is required to be proved shall, in case of empty means of transports, be subject to payment of a fine to the amount of 600,000 Rls. up to 6,000,000 Rls. at the discretion of the related customs’ chief and in case of means of transports carrying goods, be subject the provisions of Article 113.

Article 104: Where it is observed that package(s) not referred to in general (cargo) declaration, manifest and the bills of lading of the
means of transport are combined with goods imported subject to article 103 and/or package(s) referred to in general declaration, manifest and the bills of lading are not delivered to withholding authority , and in order to explain the reason of such difference, the transport company have not been submitted documents accepted to the customs within three months, the case shall be treated as follows:

a. In case of surplus unloading, additional package(s) shall only be seized.

b. In case of deficit in unloading, disciplinary fine shall be collected in accordance with Article 110 of this law.

Note 1:If within the required period, by providing documents acceptable to the customs, it is established that the difference was not as a result of fraudulent intent, the customs shall permit the amendment of general declaration.

Note 2: Additional packages delivered to the customs which is the destination of internal transit shall be subjected to the provisions of
this article.

Note 3: Unreasonable deficit and surplus amount of goods imported without packaging, shall, for the purpose of manner of taking measures and collecting fine, are subjected to the provisions of this article.

Note 4: Responsibility of payment of above-mentioned fines in case of transportation companies which have agencies in Iran, shall be borne by such agencies and in case of transportation companies which have not of ficial agencies in Iran, the customs may obtain necessary security in order to collect eventual fines from carrier of the goods.

Article 105: If a goods whose import is prohibited, is declared with full and correct name and specifications for outright import, the customs shall refuse its release and send a written notice to the owner of goods or his/her legal representative to transit it externally or return it subject to related terms and condition within three months. In case of failure in taking any measure within such period, the customs shall seize the goods and service the case on the owner or his/her legal representative. The owner of goods shall be entitled to submit his/her objection to the competent court within two months from the date of service of the seizure and inform the related customs of the case not more than fifteen days from the date of referring the case to the competent court, otherwise the goods shall outright be seized by the Government.

Note 1: Goods whose import are considered as a crime, shall be excluded from the scope of this article and relevant laws and regulations shall be applied to them.

Note 2: In cases where the owner of the goods is opposed to the discretion of the customs, and the case is referred to administrative bodies and customs disputes settlement authorities, its proceedings shall be done out of turn. The date of service of the final discretion of the customs shall be the rates for calculating of said three months.

Note 3:If the owner of goods or his/her legal representative informs his/her disagreement with external transit or returning of the goods in writing prior the expiration of three-month period, the customs shall immediately seize the goods.

Article 106: b .The goods referred to in article 105 which have been released from the customs instead of permissible goods and without using untrue documents and not more than four months have passed from their release shall be treated as follows:

a .If all or parts of released goods are at the disposal of the owner of the goods, they shall immediately be seized and after refunding collected import duties, the case shall be treated in accordance with the provisions of article 105 of this law.

b. If all or parts of cleared goods are not at the disposal of the owner of the goods, and it is known that at the time of release a higher amount of import duties have been accrued to them, the balance amount of import duties which are not collected, shall be collected.

Article 107: In case where during examination of a declaration or checks of export goods it is known that the amount of fund which was declared or deposited had been less than the required amount, in addition to collecting the balance amount, a fine equals to five percent (5%) to fifty percent (50%) of such balance amount shall be collected at the discretion of the customs’ chief.

Note: If in the export declaration, more than ten percent (10%) more or less than the real value of the goods is untruly declared in order to create illegal privileges and facilities for the owner of the goods, a fine between ten percent (10%) to one hundred percent (100%) of the balance amount of the value shall be collected.

Article 108: Apart from the instances that are mentioned in the law as smuggling, detecting any discrepancies after declaring and before release of imported goods from the customs, which results in financial loss of the government and requires collecting of balance amount of pertaining fees, in addition to collecting the amount, due to circumstances and at discretion of the customs’ chief, an amount of fines equal to ten percent (10%) to one hundred percent (100%) of the balance amount shall be collected.

Note 1: If detecting of a discrepancy results in collecting balance amount import duties in an amount equal to more than fifty percent (50%) of the import duties of declared goods, in addition to collecting the balance amount, the minimum collected fine shall not be less than fifty percent (50%) of the balance amount.

Note 2 :In cases where the final destination of the bill of lading after the customs, is arrival border and a transit declaration is drawn up
based on the contents of the documents and submitted to the customs, if as a result of examination a discrepancy is detected in the type and quantity of the goods and documents acceptable to the customs have not been submitted within three months, contrary and surplus goods shall be seized by the government.

Note 3: Fines related to contrary declaring, with the exception of note 2 of this article, in case of external transit, returned, and internal transit goods by the transport company shall be collected in form of security so that in case of non-releasing or non-delivery of goods to the destination customs within the required period, in addition to applying related provisions, they shall be credited in definitive income.

Article 109: Apart from the force majeure cases, in case of failure in leaving the country or submitting to the customs within the required period, the means of transports and goods imported into the country in the form of transit, temporary import, temporary import for processing or returned and those means of transports imported according to international transit permit shall, at the discretion of the customs’ chief, be subject to fines of four hundred thousand (400,000) Rls. to two million (2,000,000) Rls. for per day of delay.

Note: Cases in which the fees of a pledge or security received from the owner of a means of transport or goods are credited in income and/or judicial authorities are notified of the crime of smuggling shall be excluded from the provisions of this article.

Article 110: If in the declarations submitted to the customs for clearance of the goods, untrue specification of the goods are declared but such untrue declaring does not entail any fiscal losses for the government and its detection does not require collecting of the balance amount, at the discretion of the local customs’ chief, fines not less than five hundred thousand (1,000,000) Rls. and not more than one million (2,000,000) Rls. shall be collected and the submitted declaration shall, with the written consent of the local customs’ chief, be corrected.

Note: In cases where untrue declaring is not one of the instances of offences and smuggling referred to in this law but the goods themselves

are the ones whose import are prohibited, the customs shall take measure in accordance with the provisions of article 105 of this law and in addition to it, the fine referred to in this article shall also be collected.

Article 111: Whenever the offenders of customs regulations who are required to pay fines, have objections to the fine itself or its amount which is determined by the local customs’ chief, they may, before release or after its depositing or securing in the realated customs, submit their objections accompanied by reasons and evidences to the related customs in order to be referred to the customs disputes settlement authorities.

Note:In all cases in which a fine for customs offences is determined by the customs’ chiefs, the fine shall be determined regarding to the type, repetition and frequency of the offence, offenders’ records and status, volume, type and value of goods and circumstances of time and place, and shall clearly and completely stipulated and signed in the minutes of meeting of the offence and a copy of it shall be sent to Iran Customs Administration and in lieu of collecting the fine an official receipt shall immediately be issued
and submitted to the payer.

Article 112: Involving of the customs employees in foreign trade or customs brokerage and any other profession related to customs formalities shall be prohibited. Violators shall be sentenced to dismissal from service by the order of administrative offences investigating authorities.

 Costumes Offences

Part VII Customs procedures

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Iran Customs Law : Customs procedures – Other Procedures

Iran Customs procedures include three chapters which are Chapter 1 :imported goods and Chapter 2 :Export goods and 3 :Other Procedures

Chapter 3 – Other procedures

Topic 1 – Passenger’s goods

Article 76:For the purpose of this law, “passenger” means a person who enter into or exit customs territory through authorized ways while holding a passport, transit permit or passage document.The following persons shall be considered as
passenger:

a. Iran’s non-resident person who temporarily enter into or exit the customs territory.

b. Iran’s resident person who exits the customs territory of the country (departure passenger) or enters into it (arrival passenger).

Note 1: Departure passengers exiting the customs territory destined for free and special economic zones shall not be subjected to the provisions of this article and if they exit the country through such zones, they shall be obliged to declare their accompanied goods to the customs.

Note 2: Conditions, procedures of declaring and examination, the amount of exemption of personal accompanied goods of the passenger and passenger’s related Affairs and Finance within the framework of this law shall be determined in the bylaw.

Article 77: In accordance with temporary import procedure and by providing a security, Iran’s non-resident passengers may, in addition to personal effects which are outright clearable, import to customs territory objects such as personal jewellery, portable objects including cameras and camcorders together with an appropriate amount of films and tapes or its accessories, film or slide projectors, binoculars, musical, recording and playback instruments together with tapes and CDs, radio receiver, TV, typewriter, calculator, personal computer, prams, wheelchairs, sports equipments, mobile phone, first aid box, portable medical equipment necessary for passenger and a rowboat which shall be determined based on the bylaw.

Article 78: Iran’s non-resident passengers may import their personal means of transport to customs territory of the country subject to the rele-vant provisions and in accordance with the temporary admission procedure. Iranians residing abroad may bene fit the advantage of this article provided that they had been residing abroad at least for three months before entering to Iran.

Note 1: A means of transport may, during the validity of temporary admission license and after registering the date and performing necessary controls, exit and enter through authorized ways.

Note 2: If it is proved that personal effect or personal means of transport of Iran’s non-resident passengers admitted temporarily have been totally damaged, it shall not be necessary to return them on the condition of entrusting with the customs.

Topic 2 – Diplomatic courier and packages of diplomatic post

Article 79: a. Diplomatic courier means a person who has an order on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his/her respective government and carries official notes addressed to missions or embassies of such government in foreign countries or international organizations and/or carries notes of such missions or embassies addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his/her respective government and/or carries of ficial notes of missions or embassies his/her respective government in a country addressed to other missions or embassies of that government in a third country.

b. Package of diplomatic post means a package containing documents or objects for official use and/or government of ficial notes sealed by the stamp of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or diplomatic missions of the Islamic Republic of Iran or foreign governments and upon which the phrase “EXPEDITION OFFICIELLE COURRIER DIPLUMATIQUE” and/or any sentence with the same meaning is written and is carried by a diplomatic courier.

Note 1:Package of diplomatic post which is not accompanied by diplomatic courier and is carried as cargo, shall not require a special diplomatic post note and visa and its release shall be permitted if it meets necessary requirements of package of diplomatic post.

Note 2: Administrative directive of this topic shall be determined in the bylaw of this law based on the law of approval of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations adopted on Octo-ber 13, 1964.

Article 80: The consulates of foreign countries in Iran shall be reciprocally entitled to send and receive package of diplomatic post by diplomatic courier and in this case all required requirements of this topic shall be applied to them. A diplomatic courier who enters the country should, in addition to diplomatic passport, hold a special document indicating his/her status as such issued by the sender of the diplomatic package and such document should bear special visa for the diplomatic courier. Such visa shall only be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran or the Islamic Republic of Iran’s embassies in abroad

Topic 3 – International postal items

Article 81: Postal items mean all items which are accepted exchanged and distributed by post in ac-cordance with postal laws of the country or Universal Postal Union and consist of the following mailings and parcels:

a. Mailings include letters, postcards, press, business samples, recorded tapes and CDs and the like.

b. Parcels include all postal packages except mailings which are subject to their special rules in terms of packaging, weight and postage fees.

i – Exchange of bags of postal items .

Article 82: Postal bags containing postal items shall be monitored and sealed –with or without lead– by the customs when entering the customs border and dispatching abroad in postal exchange offices

ii – Items sent abroad

Article 83: All items sent abroad which are subject to customs control shall be accompanied by CN22, CN23, CP71 and CP72 forms to
be completed by the sender. Such forms which shall be considered as customs declarations of postal items upon which customs checks shall be performed.In postal offices in which there are no customs units, the customs agents shall supervise on
postal items which are subject to customs regulations and seal them by stamps or other automatic means which are allowed and enforced by Iran Customs Administration.

Note: Postal services office is a public or private entity which is licensed by the government to render international postal service offers.

Article 84: Iran Customs Administration may, at request of Islamic Republic of Iran Post Company and after establishing the necessary conditions, empower the later to perform on its behalf all or parts of its functions related to the admission of postal items sent abroad for a specific period of time.

Article 85: Everywhere in the country in which there is an office of exchanging foreign postal items, a customs office should also be located there and perform respective duty.

Note 1: The office of exchanging foreign postal items shall be established with the knowledge and consent of Iran Customs Administration.

Note 2: The Islamic Republic of Iran Post Company shall be obliged to provide all necessary administrative facilities for the establishment of the customs office.

Article 86: Customs office located at the office of exchanging foreign postal items shall control accepted items according to CN22, CN23, CP71 and CP72 forms attached thereto, and in case of any doubt, may request the agent of office of exchanging foreign postal items to open them in order to match the content with the form attached thereto and in case of mismatch, the item shall be returned and if it is an item the export of which is prohibited, it shall be con fiscated and the relevant regulations shall be applied.
The customs shall supervise on sealed items sent abroad as well as seals of the bags

Note: While supervising on dispatching postal items, the customs shall, in addition to sealing the bags, seal the form of bills of lading of the bags and parcels therein with stamp determined by the customs.

iii – Items imported from abroad

Article 87: If the customs is suspicious about an item, it may require the post agent to open it. In such case, a special form shall be attached to such package indicating the opening of the item and determining the specifications of the goods in accordance with the sample set by the Iran Customs Administration.

Note 1:If the customs is suspicious about a letter or amailing in respect of which the post office is not allowed to open it, article 23 of the bylaw of postal parcels shall be applied. The same shall also be applied on items sent abroad.

Note 2: Release of cargoes and items which have commercial nature shall be subject to the gneral procedures and regulations.

iv – Postal items subject to import duties

Article 88: Items imported from abroad which are subjected to import duties shall be stored in warehouses belonged to the Post Company and under the customs control.

Article 89: Post offices shall be obliged to set a list of postal items containing all of the specifications based on customs declarations for postal items which are considered as abandoned goods in accordance with postal regulation and deliver it to the customs warehouses together with the goods. The Post Company shall be obliged to provide the customs with an appropriate space for their maintenance.

Note:The Post Company may at the written request of the owner of the goods, extend the period of storage for not more than three months.

v – Carriage and exchange of items imported from abroad within the country.

Article 90:If the postal items referred to in laissez-passer are not delivered to the customs of destination of transit, the provisions of the sixth topic of Chapter 1 of Part VII of this law shall be applied.

vi – Distribution of items and collection of import duties

Article 91: Import duties of items imported from abroad shall be collected by the customs. Distributable items by the postal service shall be determined by customs of ficials through issuing a license or permit and such items shall be recorded in a special registration book and then the customs license or permit along with the bill of pertaining fees shall be delivered to the post office. After collecting customs duties, the post of fices shall remit the collected fees into the customs and settle the account with the customs not more than twenty days from the date of delivery of the bill. Deposited fees shall be credited in definitive income.

Topic 4 – Duty free shops

Article 92: Duty free shops mean the shops established by non-governmental sector under the control of the customs in international airports and other airports operating international flights and the ports and land entry points and it is allowed that the foreign goods with exemption from payment of import duties and domestic goods to be sold to arrival or departure passengers or crews of arrival or departure means of transports. Duty free shops shall be established after obtaining respective permission from the customs and relevant organizations.

Note: The manner of import, export, sale and the type of the goods as well as settlement of existing goods in such shops shall be determined in the bylaw of this law.

Article 93: Foreign goods which are subject to import duties and are sold only to a passenger or crew shall be subjected to smuggling provisions, detected at the time of entry into the customs territory without being declared to the customs..

Article 94: If goods in addition to those mentioned in documents are observed at the warehouse of a duty free shop which is located
outside the customs warehouse, the additional foreign goods shall be subject to smuggling provisions. To this end, the customs may, in each case it deems necessary, investigate and count the existing goods in such warehouse and match them with entry and exit documents.

Topic 5 – Means of transports for commercial use

Article 95: The term “means of transport for commercial use” means a vessel, hovercraft, aircraft, means of transports, road and rail
means of transport used commercially for international transport of passengers and goods in international trade, along with reasonable
amount of spare parts, supplies and equipment, lubricants and fuel contained in standard tank such means of transport. The term also includes a cargo compartment or container.

Article 96: Means of transports for commercial use whether loaded or empty may enter into the customs territory temporary or in transit, provided that they are registered abroad and are not used for internal transportation. Such means of transports shall be released from official borders within the deadline set by the customs without any changes except changes arising out of the depreciation.

Article 97: In order to identify and liquidate means of transports for commercial use, such means of transports at the time of arrival and departure shall only be required to submit an import or export general declaration to the customs (no other document are required) and related Iranian transport company shall be exempted from depositing security provided that it lodges a pledge.

Note 1: The goods carried by such means of transports and/or persons who travel with these means of transports, shall be subject to thire own special regulations.

Note 2: If the mean of transport does not leave the country within required period, it shall be subject to smuggling provisions if the a fraudulent intent is established.

Topic 6 – Transhipment procedure

Article 98: The term “transhipment procedure” means transfer of goods under the customs’ control from an arrival means of transport to a departure one within a customs area which is the same arrival and departure customs in the customs territory. The transfer shall take place directly or indirectly when the arrival and departure means of transports are present in the area of a customs at the same time or within a time interval.

Note: formalities of declaring, examination, withholding authority and collecting transshipped goods shall be determined in the bylaw
of this law.

Topic 7 – Carriage of goods coastwise procedure

Article 99:“Carriage of goods coastwise procedure” means a procedure under which domestic goods are carried by border rivers or the sea from a border customs to another border customs within the customs territory. Those goods which are, in terms of proximity of the distance and charges benefit, carried from one point to another point of customs territory through authorized land ways and transiting the territory of a foreign country as well as the goods which are carried to free trade zones by border rivers or the sea provided that they are to be used in such areas shall also subject to carriage of goods coastwise regulations.

Note: formalities of declaring, examination and the amount of security and required documents shall be determined within the framework of this law by the bylaw.

Article 100:Goods whose export from the country are authorized and their export are not subject to payment of any fees may, by performing related formalities and regulations, be carried as carriage of goods coastwise. Iran Customs Administration may, by obtaining security, pledges or other commitments, agree with carriage of goods coastwise of goods whose export are prohibited or conditionally permissible under the law and regulations.

Article 101: Once carriage of goods coastwise license validity period for arrival of the goods to the destination customs is expired and certificate of the destination customs indicating the arrival of goods is not submitted by the owner of the goods up to three months after its expiry, such goods shall be considered as a goods not reached to the destination and the following procedure shall be followed:

a. If goods which are the subject of carriage of goods coastwise are the authorized ones, the obtained pledge or security shall be enforced and thereafter export permits shall be issued.

b. If goods which are the subject of carriage of goods coastwise are the ones whose export are prohibited or conditionally permissible, they shall be subject to anti-trafficking provisions and in the absence of proof of fradulent intent, only the security shall be confiscated or enforcement of the pledge shall be followed up. As long as the crime of smuggling is not notified or the fund of the security or pledge is not credited in definitive income, delivery of the goods shall allowed by collecting the disciplinary fine referred to in article 109.

Note: In cases where by providing authentic documents acceptable to the customs, it is established that carriage of goods coastwise goods are lost during their transport due to force majeure, Iran Customs Administration shall be entitled to consider them as the goods reached to the destination and, in addition to issue the order of cancellation of the security or pledge, it shall also refrain from pursuing the case.

Part VII Customs procedures – Export goods

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Iran Customs Law : Customs procedures – Export goods

Iran Customs procedures include three chapters which are Chapter 1 :imported goods and Chapter 2 :Export goods and 3 :Other Procedures

Chapter 2 – Export goods

Topic 1 – Outright export

Article 64: Outright export means a customs procedure under which internal goods are exited from the country for sale or consumption.

Note: Conditions, procedures of declaring and examination and required documents shall be determined within the framework of this law by the bylaw.

Article 65: Clearance of outright exported goods which have been returned to the country (re-importion) without using it shall be subject to submitting relevant export documents, and quarantine, health and safety certificates, re-payment of fees received, restitution of enjoyed privileges and returning export prizes for exporting goods, as the case may be.

Note: Clearance of the returned goods which have been used or repaired abroad shall be subject to conditions which shall be determined within the framework of provisions of this law by the bylaw.

Topic 2 – Refunding import duties (Drawback)

Article 66: Import duties collected from the same import goods that are re-exported from the country and materials, goods and external packing materials used or consumed in the production, completion or packing of exported goods shall, subject to the provisions of this law and its bylaw, be refunding to the exporter on the rates of the date of importing goods.

Note 1: Goods which are transported to free or special economic zones for export shall be subjected to provisions of refunding, if they are exported in accordance with laws and regulations of these zones.

Note 2: Import duties of catalysts which are required for a chemical reaction shall be refunded but the tools and lubricants and the like which are used and consumed only as an aid in the production of exported goods shall not be subjected to provisions of refunding.

Note 3: Refunding may also be requested by persons other than the importer of such goods.

Note 4: Deadline of the request of refunding import duties of materials used in exported goods shall be three years from singing date of the customs license or permit of imported goods. Signing day of the customs license or permit and the day of submission of the refund request to the Iran Customs Administration shall not be calculated in such period.

Article 67: In order to facilitate the identification and adaptation of imported goods and materials used in the exported goods, the exporter while submitting an exporting declaration must simultaneously inform the export customs of the refund and the number of relevant import license and the customs shall be obliged to fully perform examination formalities of exported goods and indicate the result on the back of the export declaration.

Note: Documents required by the customs in order to fulfill procedures of refunding import duties shall be specified in the bylaw of this law.

Article 68: Refunding shall be calculated based on import duties and the rates of the functions referred in customs documents at time of entry. In case a part of collected fees with regard to importing goods is collected by organizations other than the customs, the latter shall inform such organizations of the case in order to refund it. The customs and other collecting organizations shall annually provide for necessary fees for refunding in their annual budget.

Article 69: If domestic manufactured goods are sold to persons who exempted for similar foreign goods, payments for the import of goods, materials, parts and components used in their production shall also be refunded to the seller in accordance with the provisions of this law.

Article 70: Any refunding made based on false documents and detected in customs investigations shall be subject note (1) of article 143 of this law.

Topic 3 – Temporary export

Article 71: Temporary export means a customs procedure under which permissible goods are exported from the country temporarily, within a specified period which shall be determined in the bylaw of this law for certain purposes, including manufacturing, processing, repairing, finishing, showing in an exhibition or as a means of trans-port for personal use or commuting between Iran and other countries or as equipment for rendering engineering and technical services, and then they are returned reimported to the country.

Note: Conditions, procedures of declaring and examination, the amount of security and re-quired documents within the framework of this law shall be determined in the bylaw.

Article 72: If goods have not been returned until the deadline, the security shall be collected or enforcing of the pledge shall be followed.The goods whose export are prohibited or conditionally permissible shall be treated in accordance with smuggling provisions.

Note 1: Temporary exported goods which are not returned to the country within the deadline and their procedures are transformed into outright export, shall not be subject to any refunding and outright export facilities.

Note: If until ten days after the expiration of the deadline, goods have not been delivered to the customs, the customs may receive the fine referred to in article 109 of this law.

Article 73: If at the time of returning goods, the seals, lead seals or other marks attached by the customs on necessary packages or the contents of the packages have been damaged and identification of the original goods is not possible by the customs, the goods in question shall be considered as imported goods and provisions related to imported goods shall be applied to it.

Article 74: Temporary export goods upon returning re-importing shall be exempted from payment of import duties. Components, parts and accessories which are replaced at time of repairing and/or a new part added or attached to the goods shall be subject to import duties.

Note:If replacement of major parts or attachment of new components are such that goods lose their originality, their release shall require fulfillment of outright import formalities and payment of import duties in an amount equal to the difference between the value of imported and exported goods.

Article 75: Livestock that are temporarily exited from the country for grazing shall be subjected to temporary export procedure and such livestock and their offspring shall be exempted from payment of import duties. Exit and return formalities of such livestock shall be subjected to bylaw of grazing of livestock adopted by the Council of Ministers

Part VII Customs procedures – Imported goods

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Iran Customs Law – Part VII Customs procedures

Iran Customs procedures include three chapters which are Chapter 1 :imported goods and Chapter 2 :Export good and 3 :Other Procedures

Chapter 1 – Imported goods

Article 47: Goods arrived at customs territory may be declared for one of the following purposes:

a . Outright import

b .Temporary admission

c . Temporary import for inward processing

d .Returned (returning abroad)

e . External transit

f . Internal transit

Actions taken by the customs and relevant persons in relation to the declaration and its related goods and resulted in issuance of customs license or permit in cases referred to in items (a) to (e) of this article shall be considered as outright customs formalities, and in the case of in items (f) shall be considered as inoutright customs formalities.

Topic 1 – Outright import

Article 48: Outright import means a customs procedure under which the goods imported for using within the customs territory shall
be cleared by payment of import duties and charges of rendering services as well as fulfillment of all formalities.

Article 49: In cases where the goods have been lost, damaged or perished during transport from its origin until delivery to the withholding authority or during the storage in customs warehouses, the owner of the goods may request to release the goods from the country after payment of all charges of rendering services and fulfillment of customs formalities and/or grant it to the government free of charge and/or separate damaged or perished part and by payment of the charges of rendering services, just pay import duties of the intact part and refrain from release of the remaining part in favor of the government. If the separation of intact part is not possible or its separation causes further damage or perishing of the goods, the administrative customs may at the request of the owner of the goods, by drawing up a minutes of meeting which shall be con firmed by the customs, determine the value of the goods proportional to damage and perishing, and based on it, calculate and collect the import duties. Where such import duties are received based on the weight, then a discount shall be given to import duties proportional to damage or perishing. Where the withholding authority causes damage of the goods, the damaged part shall be exempted from payment of the charges of rendering services.

Topic 2 – Temporary admission

Article 50: Temporary admission means a customs procedure under which specific goods may under certain circumstances be imported into the customs territory temporarily. These goods must be released within a certain period determined by the customs without making any changes to them. Changes resulting from the depreciation shall be excluded from this provision.

Note: List of the goods subject to temporary admission procedures as well as formalities, guaranties and other relevant provisions shall be determined in the bylaw in accordance with this law.

Topic 3 – Temporary import for inward processing

Article 51:Temporary import for inward processing means a customs procedure under which goods may temporarily be imported
into the customs territory to be manufactured, completed, repaired or processed and then be exported. This procedure shall also include substances such as catalysts which are used in manufacturing, completion and processing. Auxiliary goods such as lubricants and equipments shall not be subjected to the procedures for temporary import for inward processing. The compensating goods are the ones obtained from manufacturing, completion, processing and repair of procedures for which licenses of using temporary import for processing are obtained.

Note 1: Time limit for temporary import for processing shall, by separation of the different inward groups of goods be determined upon joint proposal of relevant production ministries, Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines which shall be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Note 2: The manner of implementation of this article within the framework of this law shall be determined in the bylaw.

Topic 4 – Returning goods

Article 52: Returning goods means a customs procedure under which imported goods in the customs may, as long as they have not been sold under abandoned regulations, be declared and cleared for the purpose of returning to abroad.

Note: The manner of implementation of this article within the framework of this law shall be determined in the bylaw.

Topic 5 – External transit

Article 53: External transit of goods means a customs procedure under which goods may, in order to be transited through the customs territory, be imported from an authorized customs and exported through another authorized customs under the control of the customs.

Note: Conditions, formalities of declaring and examination, the amount of security and required documents shall be determined within the framework of this law by the bylaw of this article which shall be regulated by joint proposal of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines which shall be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Article 54: If at the arrival customs a de ficit is observed in transit goods in relation to declaration, a minutes of meeting shall be drawn up, the declaration and transit permit shall be amended and the goods shall be transited. Additional goods of the same kind in excess of five percent (5%) and additional goods of the other kind shall be subject to note 2 of article 108 of this law. In this case amending the documents and transit of the goods shall, subject to relevant regulations, be permitted.

Article 55: In exceptional circumstances where there is a strong suspicion of an offence and as result of customs control in transit route, a difference between cargo and laissez-passer is discovered, with regard to additional goods it shall be seized and with regard to de ficit and inconsistent goods it shall be treated in accordance with smuggling provisions.

Note: If along the transit rout of the goods there is a strong suspicion of smuggling for the police in relation to transit cargo or if transit goods are encountered to any manipulation as a result of redeeming the seal and lead seal of truck or container, redeeming the seal and lead seal and checks of the cargo shall be possible only at presence of a representative of the customs and drawing up a minutes of meeting.

Article 56: If at the time of examining transit goods at the exit customs it is observed that seals and lead seals have been damaged, the customs of ficial shall examine the contents of the packages at the presence of representative of the transport company and/or the driver, and compare them with laissez-passer. If no difference is observed, the release permit shall be issued and the security or pledge shall be cancelled. Whenever seals and lead seals have deliberately been broken and the contents have been manipulated, then smuggling provisions shall be applied thereto.

Note: In case in the course of customs control on the exit border, goods added to or deducted from, or inconsistent with those referred to in customs license are detected, If seals and lead seals of container are intact and bad intent is not established, permit of unlading of the goods at customs warehouses with drawing up a minutes of meeting or permit of releasing the goods from customs territory shall be issued and the security shall be withdrawn and the pledge shall be waived.

Article 57: If transit goods have not been exited from the customs territory or have not been delivered to the customs until expiration of validity of the license, the goods shall be subjected to smuggling provisions.

Note 1: If the customs establishes that goods have been lost due to force majeure , the obtained security shall be refunded and undertaken commitment shall be void. In case there is a valid reason, a security to the amount of import duties of the non-delivered or non-released goods shall be credited in definitive income of the customs.

Note 2: The customs may take disciplinary fine referred to in article 109 of this law and issue the permission of delivery of the goods to the withholding authority , provided that the goods had been delivered to the destination customs with favorable opinion of the customs not more than ten days before the expiration of the validity of external transit permit.

Article 58: Responsibility of the carrier to pay pertaining fines, customs claims and fines resulting from non-delivery or non-exit of the goods shall not be limited to obligations undertaken and/or securities obtained for issuance of transit permit.

Topic 6 – Internal transit

Article 59: Internal transit means a customs procedure under which goods not undergone customs formalities are transferred from an authorized customs to another authorized customs and/or to other premises under customs control so that their outright customs formalities be done at the destination. Based on the fact that whether internal transit of goods is requested by applicant or the customs’ decision it shall be referred to “personal internal transit” or “administrative internal transit” respectively.

Note: Conditions, procedures of declaring and evaluation, the amount of security and required documents shall be determined within the framework of this law by the bylaw.

Article 60: In case of accumulation of goods in customs warehouses, the customs may, by issuing a decree (administrative order), transfer sealed containers (with or without lead) under the title of administrative internal transit to another customs warehouses. Responsibility of de ficit, loss and damage of goods during administrative internal transit except in cases of force majeure shall be borne by the customs.

Note 1: Charges of transportation and services related to internal transit except in cases of force majeure shall be undertaken by the customs and shall not be collected from the owner of the goods. The withholding authority shall be obligated to insure the goods which are the subject of internal transit against the risks arising accident and fire and collect related premiums from the owner of the goods at clearance time.

Note 2: Personal internal transit shall be subject to acceptance of the request by the customs of origin of transit. Responsibility of deficit, loss and damage of goods during personal internal transit shall be borne by the declarant.

Note 3: At the request of a transport company and after ful fillment of relevant formalities, the customs shall be obliged to issue internal transit permit in the form of non-stop transport for goods in whose transport documents one of the internal cities is determined as the place of delivery, provided that there is an appropriate and authorized customs in such city.

Note 4:In order to utilize the full potentials of the customs and exclusive economical zones and reduce stay of goods in entry points, the customs shall, at the request of organization responsible for the zone, be obliged to agree with the transit of the goods to the customs and exclusive economical zones. It is understood that the relevant zone initially bears transfer charges so if the owner of the goods refers, it shall collect the charges from him/her. Responsibility of maintenance of the goods shall be borne by the carrier and relevant withholding authority.

Article 61: When in the customs which is the origin of internal transit, a de ficit is detected towards contents of declaration, a minutes of meeting shall be draw up, declaration and transit permit shall be amended and goods shall be transited. If as result of examination of internal transit goods in the customs of origin, additional goods of the same kind in excess of five percent (5%) or additional non-prohibited goods towards contents of declaration of the transport company or owner of the goods is detected, it shall, respectively, be subjected note 2 of article 108 of this law and smuggling provisions.

Article 62: If the internal transit goods are not fully or partially arrived at the destination in the required period, they shall be subjected to smuggling provisions.

Note: In special cases including excuses such as illness, accident and adverse events which shall be determined in the bylaw and approved by the Council of Ministers, the customs may collect disciplinary fine referred to in article 109 of this law and then issue the permit of delivery of the goods to the withholding authority , provided that it have been delivered to the destination customs not later than five days after expiration of the internal transit permit with favorable opinion of the customs.

Article 63: In cases where the internal transit goods are delivered to the destination customs with deficit, they shall be subjected to regulations on shortage of unloaded goods provided that the seal, lead seal and container have been intact and not been manipulated.Transit goods shall be subject to smuggling provisions in case where the seal and lead seal are manipulated and deficit is detected.If the de ficit and redeeming the seal and lead seal are due to force majeure , the security and pledge shall be revoked

Formalities and general terms and conditions of declaring and release

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Iran Customs Law : Part VI Formalities and general terms and conditions of declaring and release

Article 38: Release of the goods from customs premises shall require fulfillment of customs formalities. customs formalities of the imported goods shall be fulfilled at the first authorized customs. Iran Customs Administration shall announce authorized customs for fulfilling customs formalities.

Note: Customs formalities of ships, aircrafts or rail fleet including locomotives and wagons, whether purchased or leased from abroad shall be determined by the bylaw of this law.

Article 39: Customs formalities except those referred to in Articles 40 and 41 of this law shall be subjected to declaring of the goods by the owner of the goods or his/her legal agent through submitting a declaration in the format and the number of copies which shall be defined by Iran Customs Administration. Iran Customs Administration shall be entitled to modify the format, manner of drawing up the declaration and formalities of declaring and release of the goods as necessary.

Note 1: The manner of drawing up the declaration, documents to be attached thereto, procedures of circulating of the declaration, the manner of its examination and examination shall be determined by the bylaw of this law.

Note 2: The owner of the goods shall bear the responsibility of the accuracy of the contents of the declaration and documents submitted to the customs.

Note 3: Iran Customs Administration shall determine terms and conditions of submission of the declaration and declaring prior to arrival of goods.

Article 40: The followings shall be exempt from submission of the declaration sheet:

a .Goods which are declared and cleared by specific forms under applicable international conventions.

b . Passenger goods, gifts and souvenirs, as well as commercial samples at the discretion of the customs and the goods subject to paragraphs (a), (h), (i), (j), (q) and (u) of Article 119 of this law may be cleared by issuing a customs permit.c.

c .Goods which are released from the destination customs in form of carriage of goods coastwise

d . Release of abandoned and confiscated goods which have been exposed to sale by virtue of sale minutes of meeting and a receipt indicating the price had been received.

e . Release of con fiscated goods which are seized within the territory of the country on suspicion of smuggling and delivered to the customs, but the suspicion about which is removed.

f . Goods the exporter of which have withdrawn the exporting.

Article 41: Letters, newspapers, magazines, catalogs and the like entered by post, and bags containing mail and packages containing the press shall be exempted from submission of the declaration sheet and examination, if they are stamped by post of ficials of other countries and delivered to Iranian post of ficials provided that such bags does not contain packages of goods,
even as samples.

Article 42: In exceptional circumstances and with regard to urgently needed goods whether for public or private sector, the customs may issue a release permit for the goods with the permission of the President of Iran Customs Administration and pledge of the highest official of related ministry or government agency as well as calculating pertaining fees and issuing the order. The applicant shall be required to ful fill all customs formalities within seven working days.

Article 43: In cases where the owner of goods or his/her legal agent does not know the correct tariff number of his/her goods, he/she may, before drawing up the declaration, inquire the customs advisory opinion by submitting ownership documents and paying the charges of tariff determination. This tariff classification shall be binding for the parties, provided that it is, at the request of concerned party, referred to and determined by the customs disputes settlement commission. Persons, who want to order the goods to abroad, may also inquire the customs the goods tariff number and its import conditions by sending a sample and pro-formainvoice stating goods speci fication and expressing how long it takes that the goods enters Iran. This tariff classification shall be binding for the customs provided that it is approved by the customs disputes settlement commission and for the goods in question a letter of credit is once opened and up to one year after the service of the award by the inquiry, the opening of the letter of credit or import have been occurred.

Note: In cases where the customs determines the tariff of declared goods, if the tariff changes, the balance amount shall only be collected based on new discretion of the customs and it shall not be subject to pay a fine.

Article 44: In cases where import duties are collected based on the weight of goods, the weight of goods shall be gross weight with all internal and external wrapping and containers in normal situation when it is declared at the customs minus approximate weight of the container whose ratio with the gross weight of goods shall, taking into account wrapper and container type, be determined by the Council of Ministers.

Note: Determined approximate weight of the goods shall not include the wrapping that partially covers the goods, except the goods whose packing in practice have such a feature. Estimated net weight shall not be acceptable with regard to imported goods in bulk. In such cases the net weight of the goods shall be determined based on international common practices such as calculating draft survey of the ship.

Article 45: In case of divergence between the customs and declarant, except in cases related to whether the goods is permissible, conditionally permissible or prohibited, and where according to the customs opinion release of the goods requires to pay an amount more than what have been declared, declarant may pay import duties in cash and outright based on his/her declaration, deposit balance amount and possible fines in the form of cash deposit or bank security, and clear the goods.

Note 1: In cases where the owner of the goods who is expecting the final opinion of the customs refrains from release of the good, where the final opinion of the customs does not support the payment of an amount more than that declared by the owner of the goods, the goods shall be exempt from payments of storage fees from declaration day to the date of informing the owner of the goods of the final opinion of the customs. The owner of the goods shall be exempt from payments of storage charges for the period during of which at the discretion of the customs, government orders or regulations unreasonably prevent release of the goods and
withholding authority shall be informed of the case.

Note 2: Unless the withholding authority is not able to deliver the goods due to any reason, storage charges referred to in this article shall be financed from credit which is annually provided for this purpose in the budget law and shall be paid by the customs to the withholding authority .Additional financial burden arising from the implementation of this law shall be financed from the incomes derived from its implementation.

Article 46: If the owner of the goods who have declared his/her goods intends to declare his/her goods wholly or partially under another title, the new declaration shall be accepted provided that the goods are not released from customs and pertaining fines related to declaring contrary to the initial one are paid.

Note 1:Changing the title to personal internal transit shall be subject to approval of the customs in compliance with article 123 of this law.

Note 2: In cases where declaring of the owner of the goods is subject to smuggling provisions, the owner shall not be entitled to change the title of declaration.

Abandoned goods con fiscated goods and goods handed over to the customs administration

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Iran Customs Law : Part V Abandoned goods, confiscated goods and goods handed over to the customs administration

Article 33: Abandoned goods referred to in Article 24 of this law and confiscated goods and goods handed over to the customs , shall, subject to related regulations, be sold by “The Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization” as the responsible authority for the sale of abandoned and confiscated goods.

Note 1:As long as the goods are not sold by the mentioned organization, the owner of the goods shall, after announcement of the customs to that organization and in order to perform final customs formalities and clear his/her goods, be entitled to submit declaration and/or change the title of declaration subject to related regulations and payment of all pertaining fees and other expenses incurred.

Note 2: The goods transferred to the warehouses of such organization after being abandoned, shall also be subjected to the provisions of note 1 of this Article.

Note 3: Properties held by the Supreme Leader and specified in related laws and regulations, shall, subject to related regulations and after issuance of the verdict of the competent judicial authorities, be delivered to competent body by the Supreme Leader.

Article 34: At the time of delivery of warehouse receipt, withholding authority shall be obliged to specify date of abandonment of the
goods and measure to sell it. The provisions of Article 24 of this law shall be endorsed on the warehouse receipt.

Note 1:Carrier or transport companies shall be obliged to inform the owner or recipient of goods, and intermediary bank or the consignor if the owner or recipient of goods in not known, the date of delivery of goods to the customs warehouse and the provisions of Article 24 not more than five days after delivery of the goods. If carrier or transport companies fail to perform the duty referred in this note, they shall be liable to compensate the losses of the concerned persons.

 Note 2: The customs shall be obliged to draw up a customs declaration for each line of storage book, examing the goods at the presence of a representative of the withholding authority , determine its amount, type, value and other specifications and mention them in the text of declaration and calculate import duties and charges of rendered services. Calculation of import duties and charges of abandoned goods shall be based on the rates of the time of formulation of declaration. The list of such goods together with related declarations shall be sent to ”the Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization.”

Article 35: Where an abandoned goods is a prohibited one, assessors shall be obliged to immediately draw up a con fiscation minutes of meeting for it, and the customs shall formally inform the case to the owner of the goods and/or its carrier (if the name and address of the owner of the goods is not speci fied) and if the carrier is also unknown, by publishing a notice in highly circulated newspaper. If the owner of the goods objects the act of confiscation by the customs, he/she may refer to local judicial authority within two months from the date of service of con fiscation minutes of meeting or publishing a notice in a newspaper and inform the customs of the case by submitting a certificate not more than fifteen days from the date of referral to the judicial authority, otherwise the goods shall be outright con fiscated by the government.

Note: Fast-perishable con fiscated goods and the goods whose storage causes additional charges or risk, whether the con fiscation is outright or not, as well as goods in respect of which six months have passed from the date of confiscation but it is not outright disposed by the judicial authority, shall be sold in accordance with the regulation and the fees derived from its sale shall be held as a deposit until outright disposition unless such authority deems it necessary to continue the storage of original goods until outright disposition.

Article 36: The goods in customs premises in respect of which a costody order have been issued by the competent authority shall be subjected to regulation of abandoned goods, and surplus derived from the sale shall, within the limits of authority order, remain in custody. Cases in respect of which custody orders have been issued by virtue of Article 10 of the Islamic Penal Code shall be excluded from this provision.

Article 37: Immediately after the fulfillment of formalities referred to in articles 33 and 34 of this law, Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization shall be obliged to receive under the control of the customs, the abandoned and confiscated goods from withholding authority by drawing up a minutes of meeting and transfer it to its warehouses.

Note 1: As far as container goods are concerned, it shall be unloaded from the container not later than one week after the fulfillment of formalities of abandonment, and the empty container shall be delivered to the withholding authority . The goods together with the container may be released by written consent of its owner. If such container have been abandoned from the date of unloading the consignment, and have not been exit from the customs, it shall also be subjected to regulation of abandoned goods.

Note2: Payments of surplus derived from the sale of abandoned goods to the owner of the goods, shall be required to provide delivery order by related transport company.

Note 3: Responsibility of protecting and preserving the goods delivered to Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization
shall be borne by that organization.

Note 4: Charges of rendered services and other charges of abandoned goods at the time of releasing from the customs premises, shall be paid and/or subscribed by Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization

Note 5: Maximum storage charges financeable from the proceeds derived from the sale shall be six months and Collection and Sale of Possessory Properties Organization shall bear storage charges balance.

Iran Customs Law : Part IV Storage of goods in customs warehouses

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Part IV Storage of goods in customs warehouses

Chapter 1- Customs warehouses and responsibility of storing goods

Topic 1 – Customs warehouses

Article 23: Customs warehouses mean places whether roofed or non-covered warehouses or areas which are established for storage of importing and exporting goods and managed by the withholding authority . Where trade necessities require, the customs shall issue the license of establishment of such warehouses and determine customs controls arrangements. The withholding authorities shall be obliged to comply with the provisions of this law.

Note: The withholding authorities which store goods not undergone customs formalities with the agreement of the customs may develop required warehouses and facilities in licensed areas.

Article 24: Authorized duration for storage of goods in the customs warehouses shall be three months from the date of delivery of such goods to such premises. This period shall be extended for not more than two months at the written request of the owners of the goods or carrier companies with regard to transit goods, if existence of justified reasons at the discretion of the customs, and payment of storage fees up to date of agreement of the customs. If the owner of the goods fails to take any measure within the required period for performing customs formalities and the payment of pertaining fees, the goods shall be subject to regulation of abandoned goods. If the goods is transferred and stored in multiple customs warehouse, the period for storage shall be calculated from the date of entrance of the goods to the first customs warehouse. The period for storage of non-commercial postal consignments shall be subject to post regulations.

Note 1: If there are not necessary facilities for the storage of perishable goods and good whose storage makes additional charges in customs warehouses, it must immediately after unloading and delivery, be cleared and/or transferred to an appropriate warehouse under the responsibility of owner of the goods and control of the customs. Otherwise, withholding authority have not any responsibility for its damage or deterioration and the customs shall immediately apply regulations of abandoned goods on such goods.

Note 2: If the goods for which a cleared or sale document has been issued, is not cleared from warehouse during one month, it shall be subjected to regulation of abandoned goods. This period may be extended with the agreement of the withholding authority and the customs.

Note 3: As long as the goods is being stored in customs warehouses until issuing of the final opinion of the customs, it shall not be considered as an abandoned goods.

Note 4: Period of storage of the goods in free zones and special economic zones shall be determined by the organizations responsible for these zones according to the legal provisions of such zones. The goods in such zones in respect of which the specified periods by mentioned organizations have been expired, shall also be subjected to regulation of abandoned goods.

Topic 2 – Responsibility of storage of goods in customs warehouses

Article 25: The withholding authority shall be responsible for storaged goods in customs ware-houses since its with wolding until the time of its delivery. The withholding authority shall be obliged to insure goods in customs warehouses against the risks of fire, burning and explosion and receive related premium from the owner of the goods at the time of release. If the goods delivered to a customs warehouse is insured under a valid insurance whose number should be announced at the time of delivery in a summarized declaration, statement or other valid documents, it shall, as long as such insurance is valid, be covered by it and no premium shall be received by the withholding authority for this period.

Note 1: In case of merchandise, the value of goods for collecting premium and payment of indemnity shall be “CIF” value which determined in the purchase documents. In cases where documents are not submitted, the value shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this law.

Note 2: In the course of administrative internal transit, the person who transit the goods shall be responsible for protection of the goods.

Note 3: In cases where the withholding authority bears the responsibility of handling of the goods, the damage occurred during the handling shall also be subjected to this article.

Note 4: Where the goods are imported by letter of credit, only providing a copy of valid insurance at the time of release shall be sufficient.

Note 5: Where a copy of valid insurance of foreign transit goods is submitted by the carrier in writing indicating the pledge and verification of the authenticity of insurance at the time of the declaring to the customs, such goods shall not be subject to local premium.

Article 26: Apart from the cases mentioned in Article 25 of this law, force majeure cases and damage caused by the quality of the goods itself or bad packaging, if the goods is lost or dam-aged during the storage at customs warehouses, the withholding authority shall be liable to pay indemnity.

Note 1: Payment of indemnity or withdrawal of the owner of the goods from its collecting, shall not eliminate the liability of the withholding authority with regard to government rights and it shall pay import duties related to lost goods in case the fault is proved and the offence is established.

Note 2: If the withholding authority is the customs, and the offender is the customs’s employee, damage shall be compensated by the customs and then it shall be demanded and collected from offending employee.

Chapter 2 – Private warehouses, of ficial public cold storage plants and warehouses, and private customs

Article 27: Private warehouse means a warehouse outside the customs warehouses in which goods not undergone customs formalities belonging to a specific person is stored under required conditions in this chapter. In order to perform or complete customs formalities, the owner of the goods may store its goods not undergone customs formalities, in a private warehouse under the control of the nearest customs under required conditions in this chapter.

Note: Physical conditions of the private warehouse, its management and authorized period for storage, manner of census and method
of warehouse checks shall be in accordance with the bylaw which shall be prepared by Iran Customs Administration and approved by the Council of ministers within six months from the date of entry into force of this law.

Article 28: Where related import duties are secured and the goods are permissible or conditionally permissible, the customs may agree
with the transfer and storage of goods in private warehouse. If the goods are permissible and/or required licenses are submitted upon transfer to the warehouse by the importer, the amount of the security shall be equal to import duties. Transfer of the goods to private warehouse shall take place by issuance of an internal transit license.

Article 29: Authorized period for storage of goods in private warehouse shall not be limited to the required periods referred to in article 24 of this law and its period shall be determined by the customs.If the owner of the goods fails to perform the customs formalities until the end of the required period, following practices shall be done:

a. If the goods are permissible or the owner of the goods obtains and submits the required licenses, the customs shall be obliged to secure the pertaining import duties out of security and after collecting, issue an outright import license and send it to the owner of the goods.

b. With regard to the goods for which necessary license for release is not obtained and submitted, the owner of the goods shall be informed of the case, provisions of abandoned goods shall be applied to it and obtained security shall be revoked taking into account the conditions set forth in the establishment authorization and articles of this chapter.

Article 30: Release of the goods from private warehouses of the owner of the goods shall be required to perform customs formalities otherwise it shall be subject to customs smuggling provisions. Customs of ficials shall be entitled to investigate and count randomly goods in private warehouses and compare their characteristics with contents of the books, records and import and export documents.

Note 1: The owner of the goods shall be responsible for loss, reduction, damage or peterioration of the goods in private warehouses and shall also be responsible for payment of pertaining import duties.

Note 2: Where loss of goods is due to force majeure , the owner of the goods shall be exempted
from payment of pertaining import duties.

Article 31: The customs may agree with transfer of goods not undergone customs formalities to of ficial public cold storage plants and warehouses, other than customs warehouses. The provisions of this chapter shall also include official public cold storage plants and warehouses.

Article 32: In order to store goods not undergone customs formalities, except prohibited goods, the customs may, by obtaining security, agree with the establishment of special customs of fices for the owners of the goods and inter-national transport companies and deploy necessary of ficials in such places for implementation of regulations and performing customs formalities in such places.
The manner performing customs formalities and related control shall be specified in the bylaw in accordance with this law.