DUSHANBE, April 30, Asia-Plus — Rise in minimum wage will promote the present poverty by 5 percent if there is no artificial increase of prices that impedes improvement of living conditions of the population, Firouz Saidov of the State Committee for Statistics said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
We will recall that in a report released at a press service in Dushanbe, Labor Minister Shukurjon Zuhurov revealed on January 22 that more than half of the country’s population lives below the international poverty level, which he defined as equal to $1.20 per day in 2007.
As it had been reported earlier, during an address to a joint session of parliament, President Rahmon said on April 25 that the minimum wage will increase to 60 somonis and the minimum pension will increase to 50 somonis starting from July this year. He noted that wages of medical workers, researchers, teachers as well as public servants, and officers of the law enforcement and power-wielding structures will also increase. The maximum monthly pension rate will increase from 180 to 300 somonis, according to the president.
Asked about resources for raising wages, Saidov said that the government, most likely, intends to raise wages and pensions due to improving collection of taxes.
We will recall that the national budget for 2008 stands 4.476 billion somonis. Besides, the president in January charged the Tax Committee to collect 600 million somonis in addition to its target for this year and the Customs Services to collect 300 million somonis in addition to this year’s target.
In the meantime, the head of the non-governmental pension fund, Professor Abdusattor Jabborov, said that he welcomes government’s decision to raise wages. “However, it is hard to say to what an extent it will promote improvement of living standards of the population,” said Professor Jabborov. “We have not yet adopted a law on living wage, in accordance with which we could determine sufficiency of the minimum wage.”
