Petroleum Tax Regime in Iran

Abstract

Taxation is one of the significant phenomena in any economy as it not only generates revenues for existing government, but also serves as a fiscal tool and stabilization policy. One of the main types of taxation is the petroleum tax which accounts for more than 30% of revenue for developed countries and more than 85% for developing economies. This work focuses on petroleum producing giants in Iran. The tax system has changed over time with changing circumstances such as the structure of political environment, the nature of respective oil industry, the policies of the individual oil associations, the price of oil, and domestic demand. The study found that the tax systems of Iran are not fixed over time and they are not adequately flexible to attune to profitability or non-profitability of oil as well as price. Energy resources are one of the factors essential to the economic development of countries such as Iran and five fossil fuels, especially oil products are the most important resources that are used. As a result, use of these fuels, on the one hand, reduce the energy resources that we face with the completion of the resources and on the other hand, we are actually affected by air pollution and climate change. Energy consumption patterns of production and consumption sectors are inappropriate and that has led to the lower position of Iran among other countries in terms of energy efficiency, causing environmental problems. According to the results, a tax on gasoline, gas oil, fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas has been reduced to increase their consumption.