Ban on iPhone 14 cuts Iran’s 6-month import bill by $1bn
An outright ban imposed by Iran on the imports of Apple’s iPhone 14 models would cut the country’s six-month import bill by at least $1 billion, according to figures of a report published in the Iranian media.
The Thursday report by Tasnim News agency said that Iran had allocated some $850 million to imports of iPhone 13 models in the six calendar months to late March 2022.
It said the figure could have increased by more than 15% this year given the price of the new models.
Mobile phones are largely imported into Iran by private companies who obtain hard currency at a government-controlled secondary exchange market.
Iran stopped registering new orders for imports of iPhone 14 models in mid-summer. The Iranian customs office said earlier this week that it had expanded the ban to cover imports by passengers and postal services as of February 29.
That comes as Iranian trade ministry authorities had indicated in December that limited mobile registry services would be available for iPhone 14 models imported by passengers and certain individuals.
Imports of iPhones made by US-based company Apple accounted for nearly 32% of Iran’s $4.4 billion worth of mobile phone imports in the year to March last year.
In remarks in September 2020, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had called for a ban on excessive imports of luxury products, including a certain phone model manufactured in the US, into Iran amid sanctions that had affected the country’s financial resources.
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