Allocation of foreign currency to imports of hardware and IT infrastructure goods has been disrupted and importers say that despite previous agreements, they have not received foreign currency for imports for nearly 100 days, and this issue has disrupted their work process and increased the possibility of fines for non-fulfillment of obligations in contracts.
According to the IDEA, companies importing IT products say that they have not been able to receive currency for imports for nearly 100 days, and the Central Bank and the Ministry of Security are not cooperating in this regard. Meanwhile, contracts concluded with government organizations are subject to fines for not delivering goods on time.
Importers believe that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology does not pay as much attention to this issue as it should and does not follow up on it. In the same context, it was learned that the issue of foreign currency required for imports was raised in the meeting of Hassan Hashemi, the president of Nasr country, with Ehsan Khandozi, the minister of economy and finance, on the sidelines of the GTex exhibition, and he promised to solve the problem; But still this problem continues.
100 days have passed since placing the order and there is no news about the currency
In this regard, Maziar Noorbakhsh, the head of the board of Remis, said: Until now, according to the latest changes, from the time the order was registered, the required currency was allocated 45 to 60 days later. We could remit the currency and carry out financial transactions from reputable exchanges and clear the imported goods.
He added: Now 90 to 100 days have passed since the order was registered, but the currency has not been allocated. The process of importing goods is almost locked and no hardware and technology infrastructure goods enter the country. We have had problems importing infrastructure and hardware goods such as switches and network related goods.
Noorbakhsh said: We hear different answers from each institution; The central bank says that the responsibility for allocating currency for hardware and infrastructure goods will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Security from now on. But the Ministry of Security says that we have not accepted responsibility and it is not our responsibility.
It is not at all clear why the Ministry of Security has been appointed to allocate currency for hardware products. We have requested the central bank to hold a meeting many times, but it does not agree. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is also indifferent to this issue, it is following up on the matter, but it is in a hurry. Unfortunately, this custodian institution has not yet realized the urgency and importance of the issue. Our expectation is that they will seriously pursue solving this problem. But every time we ask for a meeting, they don’t agree.
He emphasized: We feel that the required currency is not available and we are facing a shortage of currency in the country. As usual, the first step is to remove the currency needed to import technology infrastructure goods. The reason for this is that they did not understand the sensitivity and importance of these types of goods. When the country’s foreign exchange resources are low, the government tries to allocate all the currency to food and medicine and ignores technological equipment.
Noorbakhsh said about the problems caused by not allocating foreign exchange to technology infrastructure goods: the equipment of the data centers is not up to date. Servers that need major development and changes will suffer without importing goods and soon we will see that the services will fail. Soon, gas stations, Civil Registry Organization, Document Registration Organization and banking services will face problems and will be disrupted. Processing and storing information in servers and systems require new equipment after a while, and if these equipment are not added in time, the information will be lost.
Noorbakhsh stressed: We need to regularly update security equipment and one-month delays can cause many security problems.
The government has not fulfilled its obligations
Masoud Shokrani, the CEO of Joya Informatics Group, also said in this regard: “Unfortunately, the government has not fulfilled its obligations.” The government has now announced that it has allocated 42 billion dollars of currency until this November. But according to the statistics of 1401 and 1400, this number is abnormal.
He added: This year, new events have occurred in the field of currency allocation; First, they grouped the goods, groups 21 to 26. They announced that currency will be allocated to importers of goods based on groups. The currency required for the import of infrastructure goods, hardware and network equipment was supposed to be allocated 28 days after the order was placed. After some time, the currency allocation time increased to 35 days and then 45 days. Now 95 to 100 days have passed since the order was placed, but the required currency has not been allocated to the goods.
Shokrani said: “The goods we import are equipment related to data centers, servers, firewalls and the like.” These goods are used by the government and should be provided to government organizations according to the contract and project. A penalty has been considered for the delay in the delivery of the project. Now both the companies and the government are in trouble.
In the current situation, only a few limited companies have the ability to participate in tenders and import hardware goods and infrastructure equipment. If the government fines these companies for being late, these companies will also stop importing and operating. If he does not pay a fine, the supervisory units will complain. Of course, the fine is not justified.
The CEO of Joya Data varzi Group said: Information technology companies have been put in the same row as fabric stores. All guilds are driven with the same stick. This will definitely hurt both the tech companies and the country. Three months have passed since the order of infrastructure goods was placed and the required currency has not yet been allocated. The result of this is the elimination of registered companies. On the other hand, the companies that import goods into the country using different methods and manufacture them become the rulers of the information technology market.
Shokrani called the formation of a special working group as the solution and said: We presented a very specific solution to our friends at the Central Bank and the Ministry of Security; A working group should be created consisting of one member of the Central Bank, one member from the Ministry of Security, two members from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and two members from the Computer Trade Union Organization. The import request should be submitted to this working group, the requests will be specially checked and then the required currency will be allocated to the importers by the working group.
He emphasized: the government can allocate China’s foreign exchange resources to the technology sector. In the next 4 months, we need one million dollars a month to import goods. According to the announced statistics, the central bank allocates 5 billion dollars of foreign currency every month. We need one billion dollars by the end of March, which is 4% of the total allocated currency. Allocate this currency to us, impose any law they want.
According to him, importers have faced many problems. Shokrani emphasized: The POS device has 11 pieces, 8 pieces of currency are allocated for import and no currency is allocated for the other 3 pieces. What is the responsibility of the producer? Either he has to wait until the central bank allocates currency or he smuggles the required goods into the country.
Bills are increasing day by day
Masoud Mohammadi, CEO of ARPCO, also said: Many of these goods are intended to be imported by technology companies due to contracts with the government sector. These contracts also include penalties and damages for delay.
He added: The invoices for the contracts are getting heavier day by day. The process of importing infrastructure goods has reached 6 months, but less contracts are signed for 6 months. Employers want to receive the equipment within 4 months. In these projects, the contractor is fined, on the other hand, in order to secure the currency, he deposits his deposit with the bank for several months, and the currency of the deposit decreases every day. On the other hand, he takes facilities from the bank to provide the required funds, and the bank also fines the contractor for late payment.
This member of the supply commission of the Nasr Organization emphasized: the situation is progressing in such a way that the private sector will vacate the field. Companies’ money circulates at most twice a year, they complete one project and at most two projects a year, so they prefer to exit.
He added: On the other hand, when it takes 6 months to supply goods legally, people who illegally import goods, the market becomes crowded and the market is full of smuggled goods.
This member of the Computer Trade Union Organization of Tehran emphasized: So far, we have presented various solutions to various ministries and the Central Bank. The appropriate solution is for the Ministry of Communications to negotiate with the Central Bank and related ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and a specific budget and quota for the import of infrastructure equipment and hardware is considered. Two billion dollars a year and 200 million dollars a month are needed to import technology infrastructure goods. This amount of currency should be available to the importers of infrastructure and hardware goods as a quota. This is common in other ministries as well.
Regarding the solution of private companies to solve this problem, he said: The private sector has tried all the solutions so far. For example, he would pay for the goods through foreign payment, then he would deposit money from the bank to the supplier again so that the goods would be cleared from the customs earlier. The supplier then returns the money to him.
Mohammadi said: We suggested that the import of infrastructure goods be done without allocating currency by the central bank, but the government says that in this case the origin of the currency is not known and importers may buy free currency, which will increase the price of the currency. There is no other way. It has become very difficult to import goods and importers no longer have credibility with suppliers. Due to the sanctions of the country, the goods go through several hands to enter the country.
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