Tax receipts to the national budget are reportedly decreasing in Tajikistan. Over the first quarter (January-March) of this year, the share of taxes in the national budget of Tajikistan has stood at 61 percent, which is 8.8 percent fewer than in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
An official source at a MoF says the tax receipts to the national budget over the first three months of this year have amounted more than 5.8 billion somonis, which is 7.2 percent more than the revised target.
According to him, revenues from the value added tax (2.4 billion somonis) and income tax (more than 1.5 billion somonis) have counted for about 68 percent of the tax revenues over the reporting period.
In the first quarter of this year, a total volume of Tajikistan’s national budget has amounted to more than 9.5 billion somonis (equivalent to little more than 870 million US dollars), which is 5.7 percent more than the revised target.
Experts expected that with introducing the new Tax Code the share of taxes in the country’s national budget will decrease at the initial stage as rates of some taxes have been lowered.
World Bank’s report entitled “Weak Growth, High Inflation, and a Cost-of-Living Crisis”, which was released in April this year, in particular, notes that the overall fiscal deficit last year widened to 1.9 percent of GDP, from 1.4 percent in 2021.
Tax collections reportedly declined by approximately 2 percent of GDP with the enactment of the new tax code in 2022, which streamlined the number of taxes and reduced rates. The shortfall was partly offset by development partner grants and higher non-tax revenues, according to the report. The budget deficit was financed primarily through external financing.
