Iraq has started to issue import licenses for traders that are meant to curb the smuggling of hard currency, a Trade Ministry official said.
“The central bank will be able to recognize when it gives hard-currency transfers to a certain shipment and this shipment will be known to the central bank by its size, value and origin,” Sadiq Hussein, director general of the ministry’s Iraqi trade company for fairs and services, said at a press conference in Baghdad today. “Therefore, there will be no way to smuggle the currency.”
The government decided in April curtail the impact of the impact of the dinar’s fluctuation on the economy. As part of the initiative, the Central Bank of Iraq tightened controls over its sales of U.S. dollars to prevent traders from buying to resell on the black market in Iran and Syria, which face hard-currency shortages, Deputy Central Bank Governor Mudher Saleh said on April 4.
International sanctions have cut government revenue and access to foreign currency in Iran and Syria.