Tajikistan national budget last year received more than 80 million somoni (equivalent to more than 9 million U.S. dollars) less than it was originally planned because customs officers failed to fulfill their customs duty collection target.
Last year, customs officers transferred little more than 4.4 billion somoni to the country’s national budget, which was 2.2 percent less that it was originally planned.
“The main cause of our failure to fulfill the customs duty collection target is decrease in the country’s foreign trade turnover, especially decrease in imports,” Azim Tursunzoda, the deputy head of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on January 26.
He also called seasonal functioning of the border-crossing point Kulma on the Tajik-Chinese border (this border crossing point is closed in winter), problems with transit of goods via Afghan territory and smuggling of goods and transport means into the country out of Kyrgyzstan as factors preventing Tajik customs officers from fulfilling their customs duty collection target.
Tursunzoda, in particular noted, that Tajikistan’s external trade turnover last year “amounted to 3.7563 billion U.S. dollars, which was 96 percent of the 2016 level.”
Imports of goods into the country last year reportedly amounted to 2.7744 billion U.S. dollars, which was 8.5 percent less than in 2016.
Meanwhile, according to data of the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, the external trade turnover of Tajikistan, including electrical power, last year amounted to 3.9731 billion U.S. dollars, which was 101.1 percent of the 2016 level or 43.3million U.S. dollars more.
Exports of goods in 2017 reportedly amounted to 1.1981 billion U.S. dollars, which was 33.3 percent or 299.5 million USD more than in 2016. Over the report period, imports of goods into the country amounted to 2.775 billion U.S. dollars, which was 8.5 percent or 256.3 million U.S. dollars less than in 2016.
