Iran threatens to re-impose visa charge if KRG doesn’t waive fee
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s consul general in Erbil has warned they may re-impose visa fees on travelers from the Kurdistan Region if the regional government does not follow through on a promise to abolish an administrative fee still being charged at the border.
The Iraqi and Iranian governments agreed to do away with visa fees between their countries as part of strengthening ties, especially economic and trade, when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Baghdad in March.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), however, is still levying a 25,000 dinar ($21) fee at its borders. In early April, Iran’s Consul General to Erbil Morteza Ebadi said he had secured a promise from KRG Interior Minister Karim Sinjari that they would remove the charge.
“Despite the fact that the agreement has been implemented by Iran and Iraq, we have been notified that the Kurdistan Region continues to take fees of 25,000 dinars per each Iranian individual at the Bashmakh, Parvizkhan, and Tamarchin [Haji Omaran] border crossings when they come to the Kurdistan Region,” Ebadi said in a social media post on Thursday.
Iran has lifted all its fees, he said, but “if there are no positive results from discussions with officials of the Kurdistan Region, then we have to act in the same way, although we don’t like that.”
At the Bashmakh border crossing, they lifted the fee only for 10 days of holidays last month. “Over Newroz, the 25,000 fee was removed,” Shakhawan Bakir, director of the border crossing, told Rudaw on Friday.
The KRG Interior Ministry has said they would consider reducing the 25,000 dinar fee, but justified the charge as exempt from the new policy. “We don’t collect visa fees. We only collect administrative fees,” Sami Jalal, chief of staff at the ministry, told Rudaw last week.
Iraq and Iran currently do $12 billion in trade, with most of that going in one direction from Iran to Iraq. They want to increase the volume to $20 billion.