The History of the Ministry of Finance in Iran

Since the Achaemenian time’s , the Iranian people have had a system to levy taxes and record the financial affairs of their country through offices and organizations. During the Sassanian dynasty the system of tax levy developed further with three types of taxes; the land tax, the capitation tax, and the head tax were collected. After the domination of the Arab people on Iran, when Hojaj the Son of Usef ruled, the tax books were turned into Arabic and this system remained until Seljukian and Abdolmalek Kondory became Toghrol’s minister and the system was converted to Farsi.

The Safavid dynasty brought additional levels of revenue with the taxation of foreign trade and the custom’s tax. This continued to develop during the Afshar Dynasty. With the Qajar Dynasty the financial condition of the country deteriorated due to the King’s Wars, excursions, and weaknesses. Amir Kabir’s hard work with implementation of procedure’s to collect, maintain, and create a budget for the treasury succeeded in stabilizing the economy.

Prior to the constitutional revolution, all the incomes and revenues were within the King’s jurisdiction and all responsible for maintaining the budget for that region.

A series of changes took place in the Ministry of Finance after the Constitutional Revolution in 1906. The first legal council was the expenses were met with his approval and at his command. In those days there was no majlis or parliament, the King appointed a Chancellor of Exchange to regulate the budget for the entire country. Under him each state or province had a State Accountant or Mostofiolmamaleck and their Assistants or Mirzakhalamdan who were formed and they determined the direction that this office would take. The legal council voted to keep Naserolmolk as the first Minister of Finance under the new constitution with a majority vote. This Ministry was assigned the Custom House Building, which today is the building of Tehran radio, for its offices.
In 1910, seven departments were formed under the Ministry of Finance. The most important of those were: the Treasury General, the Custom House, and the Income Collection. The Ministry of Finance was again moved to Atabak Park, the current location of the Russian Embassy.
According to Law #1294 the Ministry of Finance was divided into nine departments as follows:

1. Ministerial Section
2. Discretion of Revenues, Land States and Hard Cashes
3. Treasury General
4. Public Debts and Duties Customs reduce it’s number of offices and consolidate
5. Finance Trails
6. Bills Adjustment Commission
7. Personnel and Supplies
8. High Council for Official Trails


Since 1921 many changes have occurred in the Ministry of Finance. For example, about 40 governmental companies were established or dissolved and the Ministry was again divided into two divisions, the financial and the economic. The Financial and Economic divisions are governed by seven Directors and two Assistants.
In 1950, the Ministry of Finance received approval to The last change took place in 1974, with the approval of the Formation Law of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, by the Consultative Assembly, the law includes six articles that further defines the structure of the ministry