Tenth Session Resolutions of Border Trade Working Group

Effective from

28 November 2025

Issued by

Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade

Reference

No. 6652364

The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, acting under Article 4 of the Law on Regulating and Overseeing Border Trade (Kolbari and Malwani) and Creating Sustainable Employment for Border Residents and its implementing bylaw, has communicated the resolutions of the tenth session of the Article 4 working group, held at the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran on the 17th of Aban 1404, chaired by Dr. Dehghan Dehnavi.

The session addressed several implementation matters. Provinces found to have issued resolutions inconsistent with the implementing bylaw and the working group’s rules were given two weeks to correct them, failing which the working group would decide the matter at its next session. The Food and Drug Administration was tasked with drafting, within roughly two weeks, import instructions for relevant goods carried under the kolbari and malwani procedures, including conditions for individuals, vessels, ports, and customs offices with the necessary qualifications for the malwani (boatman) procedure, to be reviewed by the technical committee before the next session.

On vessel eligibility, the working group agreed to forward proposed amendments to the implementing bylaw to the government: raising the threshold referenced in Article 1(5) of the bylaw to 50 percent, and adding a note allowing vessels not covered by the bylaw to draw on the quota of covered vessels under criteria set by the working group, with covered vessels that are retired not required to be scrapped up to the capacity of the new vessel, though any capacity in excess of that must comply with applicable laws and regulations. Members were asked to submit supplementary comments within one week.

Regarding Note 1 of Article 2 and Article 16 of the implementing bylaw, and in support of domestic production, members were asked to submit their views within roughly one week on increasing the second-year business profit margin under the kolbari and malwani procedures (30 percent for goods with a domestic equivalent, such as home appliances, fabric and thread, textiles, and tires and cosmetics/hygiene products, and 10 percent for other items), and on a proposal to allow import of raw materials and parts for daily production of home appliances, thread, and fabric through the malwani and kolbari procedures, with trade associations required to submit their requested items to the Trade Promotion Organization through the Ministry of Industry’s specialized offices.

To support border residents and eligible guilds in the covered provinces, the Trade Promotion Organization, in cooperation with the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency, was tasked with reviewing a mechanism for purchasing malwani quotas from border residents on behalf of cargo brokers and reporting back to the working group. Customs was given one month to resolve the issue of weighing all malwani and kolbari cargo systematically (via load cells) at all points of entry, after which regulatory bodies must report violators to the working group for application of Articles 9 and 10 of the bylaw.

To prevent underdeclaration of cargo currency value under the malwani procedure, the minimum permissible declared currency value by cargo category will be determined and announced jointly by Iran Customs and the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade; declaring a value below the announced figure will not be permitted, and the declared value criterion will not be lower than that assessed by Customs. The Article 4 working group is the sole competent authority for resolving disputes over cargo currency value in the kolbari and malwani procedures.

Based on requests from provinces covered by the kolbari procedure (Kurdistan and Kermanshah), the number of eligible participants and the minimum monthly brokerage rate for each province were revised as follows: Kurdistan — 99,000 eligible participants, minimum rate 7.9; West Azerbaijan — 62,500 eligible participants, minimum rate 6; Kermanshah — 74,095 eligible participants, minimum rate 7.1; Sistan and Baluchestan — 37,500 eligible participants, minimum rate 6; South Khorasan — 12,500 eligible participants, minimum rate 6; totaling 285,595 eligible participants.

Following requests from the Central Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Currency, the working group approved the coverage status of ten batches of vessels identified by registration number, several conditional on confirmation of the vessel’s active status by the Ports and Maritime Organization. The working group also approved two province-specific requests: allowing eligible participants in Javanrud and Sarpol-e Zahab counties (Kermanshah province) to use the Bazargan and Sheikh Sale (Khosrow Abad) and Parviz Khan customs offices for clearing kolbari cargo, and approving the first-year malwani voyage in Bushehr province through the 26th of Bahman 1404.

Key Details

• Approval authority: Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade
• Responsible organization: Not specified
• Classification: Regulation
• Affected procedure: Statistical Registration
• Document number: 6652364
• Unique identifier: 404102364816
• Document date: November 28, 2025
• Publication date: January 13, 2026
• Effective date: November 28, 2025
• Expiration date: Not specified

This summary is provided for orientation only. The official Persian text issued by the relevant Iranian authority is the governing version.