TEHRAN, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The Iranian government may delay plans for a new value-added tax amid a wave of nationwide protests.
The 3-percent VAT on merchandise sales was supposed to have taken effect this fall as part of a strategy to rein in Iran's inflation rate of nearly 30 percent; however merchants in Tehran's Bazaar and other areas have gone on strike in protest.
That led President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to announce he would postpone introduction of the VAT for at least a year, Press TV reported Wednesday.
Proponents of the VAT see it as a means of shifting Iran's economy away from its heavy dependence on oil revenues.
Press TV said the uproar over the economy has Ahmadinejad caught between critics who say he isn't doing enough to stabilize Iran's economy and those directly effected by his programs.
