‘First revenue’ from Hormuz toll deposited into Central Bank - Iranian deputy speaker

The deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament, Hamidreza Haji Babaei, says the first revenues collected from tolls imposed on ships using the Strait of Hormuz have been deposited into the Central Bank account.

According to a report from the Tasnim News Agency, he has not given further details about how the revenue was collected, or who paid it, and the BBC cannot independently verify his claim.

Before the current ceasefire Tehran had said it had limited the passage to what it called ‘‘friendly’’ countries, and there were talks of collecting tolls from vessels passing through the strait. 

But there had been no clarification during that time about how much - or if - Iran was charging a fee for passage.

For example, back in late March, Iran’s embassy in India denied claims that Tehran was charging vessels $2m to pass through.

Today another senior Iranian MP, Alireza Salimi, said to Tasnim: ‘‘I have heard from reliable sources that Iran has collected fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.’’

‘‘The amount and fees collected from each of these ships vary depending on the type and amount of cargo and the level of risk they carry, and Iran determines how and to what extent these fees are collected. We determine the rules,’’ he says.

US President Donald Trump has previously threatened ships that pay tolls to Iran to use the Strait of Hormuz - we’ll have more on that in our next post.

Source: BBC
--Agencies