Taliya News - The commerce, industry, and communication ministers have reduced the price of the cell phones by ruling out the registration numbers of the handsets, Fars news agency has reported.
The price of the handsets is dropped. Sony Eriksson K750, which was manufactured in Malaysia and guaranteed by the company, is said to be 175 to 180 thousand tomans; however, the price was about 230 thousand tomans before. Nokia N70, a joint-venture which was manufactured in both Germany and Finland, is another example since those manufactured in Germany are about 290 thousand tomans, and those which produced in Finland are for sale for about 300 thousand tomans; however, these two kinds of products were about 330 to 340 thousand tomans before ruling out the registration. Sony Eriksson K800 was about 420000, which is on sale in the shops for about 415 thousand tomans now.
The vice president decreed the cessation of the registration, since its capacity; or EIR, was filled, after the formal approval of the commerce, industry, and communication ministers.
The importers of the handsets have protested against the cessation of the registration; however, they got the benefit of increase in their import tariff by about 56 percent before.
Experts say that the registration is beneficial in the temporary period of time, whereas the permanence of the registration would increase the smuggling. Therefore, the increase of the import tariff should be about 20 to 25 per cent; however, the announcement revealed that the import tariff would not change in the near future in order to support the production of the handsets in Iranian factories. These factories will be hard put to produce the handsets which would struggle with the foreign ones.
Madiran and a factory which is in Shiraz produce the handsets now. The LG and GLX handsets producers are not satisfied since so many handsets with lower prices and higher qualities can be found in the shops.
Experts say by the decrease of tariff by about 15 to 25, the Iranian productions would gain ground. By the end of the year 5 million handsets needed to be in the shops for sale as the buyers register to get the cell phones.