Financial Tribune - The Central Bank of Iran will decide about using the payment channel devised by the Swiss government for sending humanitarian goods to Iran, head of the Iran-Switzerland Joint Chamber of Commerce said.

"Using the channel carries some costs for the central bank as it should allocate resources to the channel to the extent possible," Sharif Nezam-Mafi told ILNA on Monday.

The CBI can attract more companies to the scheme by allocating more funds to the channel, he said.

A humanitarian channel to import food and medicine to Iran, dubbed as the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Agreement (SHTA), formally started operation in late February allowing companies to trade food, medicine and other critical supplies with Iran without tripping over unilateral US penalties.