On its eighth consecutive day, in addition to the Grand Bazaar, the strike has spread to all jewelers across Tehran
NCRI – Strike by merchants in various Iranian cities in protest to a tax hike and the Iranian regime’s plunderous policies is still continuing. The tax hike was ordered by the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei personally as one measure to balance the budget deficit and manage the regime’s economic bankruptcy.
In Tehran on Saturday, October 2, 2010, jewelers completed the eighth day of their strike despite a multitude of pressures by the regime to compel them to end it. The strike marks one of the largest protest acts by the merchants, and it has spread to other retailers across the capital.
In the northwestern city of Tabriz, jewelers at Amir Kabir, Mohammadi, Amir, and Qatran bazaars marked the end of their tenth day of strike on Saturday. Jewelers at Saeb Mall also joined the protest. In addition to the gold bazaar, iron merchants in Tabriz, who joined the protest in recent days, are also continuing on with their strike.
In the town of Qazvin, the regime’s Intelligence Ministry has sent SMS messages to merchants’ cell phones, falsely claiming that unions are holding talks with the merchants, in a bid to intimidate and deceive the merchants and compel them to open their stores.
Jewelers, ironmongers and foreign exchange outlets in the southern city of Bushehr are also holding an extensive strike.
Other cities that have launched their own strikes in recent days in protest to the three percent value-added tax increase include Mashhad, Birjand, Sabzevar, Torbat Heydarieh, Ardebil, Shiraz, Esfahan, Shahriar, Varamin, Sari, Qom, Ahvaz, Oroumieh, and Zanjan.
The mullahs’ President’s economic minister has blatantly admitted to the plunderous aims of the regime’s new tax policy. While deceitfully describing the “implementation of the value-added tax increase” as “a huge leap in the direction of economic progress and social justice,” he said, “This measure … creates the possibility for us to get more serious on reducing our reliance on oil through the timely and proportionate obtaining of taxes. We can run this country with the help of taxes” (State-run TV, September 28, 2010).
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 3, 2010
