Forex Quota for Overseas Travel Cut by 75 Percent
Financial Tribune: The Central Bank of Iran cut the “currency quota” for outbound travelers with a visa. Accordingly, authorized exchange bureaus are not allowed to sell more than €500 or equivalent in other currencies for air travel that requires a visa. So far certified moneychangers were allowed to sell no more than €2,000 for air travel to countries that require a visa and €300 for visa-free countries. Likewise, travelers taking land, rail and sea routes for any destination could not get more than €300, according to IBENA, the news agency affiliated to the Monetary and Banking Research Institute.
Passengers can buy the currency at official rates by showing an air ticket or other travel document.
The CBI says travelers can purchase up to €2,000 or equivalent in other currencies from moneychangers at “negotiated rates”. This quota is for adult Iranians aged 18 and above once in a year. One dollar was sold for 278,000 rials at the Melli Exchange affiliated to the Bank Melli Iran on Tuesday. Those interested can buy the greenback at 30,000-307,000 rials at negotiated rates from certified moneychangers, according to the head of the Association of Bureaux de Change Operators. “Negotiated rates” is a recently-introduced term. Selling currency at negotiated prices commenced in May after the CBI decided to encourage export firms to offer their forex earnings to moneychangers, allowing them to sell their proceeds at mutually agreed higher rates. Due to the unending volatility in the currency market, the CBI in February announced new restrictions on purchasing foreign currency from the official markets to control what it said was “precautionary demand”.
Official exchange shops affiliated to the CBI are allowed to sell foreign currency for 25 purposes, including travel, education, pilgrimage, treatment and the like. Apart from these needs, the authorized moneychangers were allowed in the past to sell €2,000 for “other purposes”. The CBI last November stopped forex allocation for miscellaneous purposes but resumed it in late May.