FACTIONS: Conservative Municipal Government Shuts Down Finance Ministry'sl Tax Center for Non-Payment of Taxes

July 15, 2004 - A group of more than 150 city workers blocked the entrances to the compound of the finance ministry’s central taxation affairs building in Tehran for non-payment of city dues, Tehran-based city affairs journalist Maryam Mohammadi tells Radio Farda’s broadcaster Keyvan Hosseini. On the final days of the tax season, the municipal government’s move disrupted the government’s effort to achieve its revenue goal, finance ministry officials said. At the taxation center the executives were stunned to see city workers dumping truck loads of gravel to block the entrances to their compound, she said. The city claims that the buildings occupied by the taxation center owe taxes and dues to the city, a charge that the taxation center denies, she adds.