**“Ranking and setting foreign-exchange ceilings to combat the renting of commercial (business) cards.”**

According to the Public Relations Office of the Iran Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), Morteza Ahmadi, while outlining the details of the TPO’s plans for regulating business cards, referred to the phenomenon of “rented business cards” as one of the main channels for the evasion of export-derived foreign currency.

Issuing a warning about illegal methods used to keep foreign currency outside the official system, he stated: Some individuals, in order to avoid returning foreign currency to the official economic cycle, use cards registered in the name of underprivileged people. After the validity period expires, they essentially discard the card and no longer use it.

The Deputy for Planning and Regulations at the Iran Trade Promotion Organization continued, emphasizing the magnitude of the problem, and added: A significant portion of unreturned export revenues is the result of the use of these rented business cards.

According to Ahmadi, and based on the announcement of the Parliament’s Economic Commission, the amount of export-derived foreign currency that has not been repatriated since 2018 totals 95 billion dollars.

The Deputy for Planning and Regulations at the TPO identified strengthening official institutions as the fundamental solution, stating: If we reinforce the secondary market [the official and transparent market], it can become our main market and reduce such issues. From an economic standpoint, it would no longer make sense for anyone to resort to rented cards.

Detailing the TPO’s measures to counter the phenomenon of rented business cards, Ahmadi explained: The ranking of business cards with the aim of “enhancing transparency in the cardholder’s performance,” and setting minimum thresholds for new cards as a mechanism for “evaluating their activity,” have been designed as two key solutions by the organization.