Part VII Customs procedures

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.