DUSHANBE, July 29, 2008, Asia-Plus — An introduced two-year moratorium on inspection of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country may lead to reduction in receipt of funds to the national budget, local independent expert Rustam Jabborov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, tax evasion cases in Tajikistan are revealed exclusively through various inspections. “According to official figures, small and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 60 percent of tax receipts in the national budget in 2007,” said Mr. Jabborov, “Therefore, one may suppose that those 60 percent of tax receipts will be questionable in the coming two years.”
He noted that the Tax Committee should collect 1.635 billion somonis in taxes under the target for 2008 plus additional 600 million somonis they have to collect by president’s instruction.
The expert termed as example the moratorium introduced on SMEs inspections in Kyrgyzstan. “In Kyrgyzstan, the moratorium was introduced for the period from April through to December this year,” said Jabborov, “The Kyrgyz government realized recently that receipt of funds to the country’s budget has considerably reduced as result of the moratorium.”
Introduction of the moratorium on the SMEs inspections may also negatively impact social sphere, including education and health sectors, as well as implementation of large hydroelectricity projects that are funded from the budget.
The expert noted that in addition to president’s decree obligating the two-year moratorium on inspection of SMEs it is necessary to work out a special document that would provide for a specific mechanism of implementation of the moratorium. “Thus, in accordance with regulations adopted in Kyrgyzstan, only SMEs that overfulfill their tax target by 30 percent are not inspected,” Rustam Jabborov said.
“Therefore, on the one hand, we should promote development of entrepreneurship and protect entrepreneurs’ interest, while on the other hand, we should not allow them to abuse the moratorium,” the expert said.
We will recall that by president’s decree of July 25, 2008 a two-year moratorium is introduced on all types of inspections of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Tajikistan. Moratorium does not apply to inspections that are conducted in accordance with the legislation on the instituted criminal proceedings.
