On Thursday, October 4, Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi, in fear of the explosion of “social and economic abnormalities,” said, “Officials should not allow the voices and demands of the people to become normal for them.”
On the same day, the state-run Sharq newspaper wrote an article titled “Tax Government,” stating, “The senior official of the Tax Organization has announced that tax revenues in the past six months have become double the oil revenues.” The article added, “Now that the 13th government is mostly relying on provincial taxes for its income, it should transparently inform the public about how the taxes are being used.”
Taxation is one of the tools for equalizing and creating economic balance in society. Governments can reduce social and economic disparities by collecting taxes from large capital assets and implementing appropriate tax plans for different income brackets, thus preventing “social and economic abnormalities.”
However, in the clerical regime, taxation is used as a tool to exert economic pressure, expand deprivation, and strengthen the financial foundations and regime-affiliated capitalists. The disgrace and shamefulness of this reverse process have become so high that a member of the Majlis said, “In all parts of the world, the wealthy pay more taxes, but the bare sword of taxation hangs over the neck of teachers, employees, workers, and oppressed guilds.”
In the regime’s tax system, tax is collected from those impoverished who peddle goods. On September 30, state-run ISNA news agency wrote, trading “Gold bullion and precious metals coins are exempt from paying value-added tax.”
Based on reports from the state-run controlled media, Raisi’s government indeed collects taxes from teachers and workers, despite their low income. These taxes are used to cover budget deficits, suppress dissent, and finance war-related expenses. However, large financial institutions affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Khamenei, which generate astronomical incomes, are exempt from paying taxes.
On September 9, the state-run Aftab news website published a report titled “Simultaneously with tax pressure on the people, 40 semi-private companies are exempt from tax.” The report stated, “Despite the noticeable increase in tax pressure on government employees and workers, the current government has taken a lenient approach towards a group of subsidiary companies. Mobarakeh Steel, Persian Gulf Holding, Iran’s Copper Industries, Chadormalu, Pardis Petrochemicals, Ghadir Investment Company, and Omid Investment Group are among the conglomerates that have benefited from government tax exemptions.”
According to the same source, “The government’s tax pressures have increased significantly to cover current government expenses. Direct tax revenues for the government have reached 8,200 trillion rials, compared to 3,050 trillion rials in 2021. In terms of the ratio to GDP, this represents a record in the entire history of modern tax collection in Iran over the past 200 years.”
Casting a 200-year-old tax record is another disaster of Raisi’s government. Raisi was appointed by Khamenei as the president with the promise of “solving the housing and livelihood problem” in order to create a barrier against the demands of the people.
On September 6, the state-run Etemad online website, in its report about Raisi’s record-breaking achievement in tax collection over the past 42 years and the granting of exemptions to corrupt foundations in the regime, wrote, “Some experts have compared the new tax system to the financial system of the Qajar period. This is despite the fact that according to the law, the Astan Quds Foundation, the 15 Khordad Foundation, the Foundation for the Oppressed (Bonyad-e Mostazafan), the Housing Foundation (Bonyad-e Maskan), the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Order, the Kowsar Economic Organization, the Alavi Foundation, and dozens of other organizations and institutions, which collectively control over 30 percent of the country’s economy, are also exempt from paying taxes.”
The confessions of regime agents about looting and corruption within the Khamenei’s court and the display of the “bare sword of taxation on the people’s neck” are signs of the regime’s officials’ horror of the explosion of “breaking social and economic norms” and their fear of the uprising of the impoverished.
Previously, a state-run website, referring to the consequences of breaking social norms and the revolution of the impoverished, wrote: “This pressure opens up space for rebellion. We have not yet faced the revolution of the deprived and the hungry. This revolution was still the revolution of the middle class… The regime is facing a very serious danger ahead.”