DUSHANBE, May 4, 2010, Asia-Plus — Innovative Road Solutions Ltd, which manages the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway, is currently collecting road tolls illegally, Amonullo Ashour, the director of the Antimonopoly Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the mechanism of road toll management for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway was introduced on April 1 only for a month. “We agreed that on expiry of a month the introduced road tolls may be reviewed but the company does not want to lower tariffs,” said Ashour, “Moreover, they refuse to submit report on their activities to the antimonopoly agency justifying the refusal by saying that it is a commercial secret, while under the concession agreement signed between the Tajik government and the company, the antimonopoly agency has the right to demand such a report from the company in case of necessity.”
He added that the antimonopoly agency on May 4 sent a written ruling on suspension of the road toll management mechanism for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway to the Innovative Road Solutions management and copies of the ruling were sent to the Ministry of Transport Communications and chairman of the Varzob district. “The ruling by the antimonopoly agency gives the company until May 11 to submit the report on its financial and economic activities as well as new toll rates for further concurrence to the antimonopoly agency; otherwise, appropriate sanctions will be imposed against it,” Ashour said.
According to him, the road tolls introduced by Innovative Road Solutions Ltd for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway are too burdensome for the country’s population and cargo transportation between the northern and southern parts of the country.
“We have received numerous complaints from both the population and cargo shipping companies about too high road tolls,” he said, adding that the road tolls introduced for this 50-kilometer section of the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway are unreasonably overstated.
“For example, if to convert to our national currency, the toll for a 50-kilometer section of road in Iran is only 0.88 somoni, while in Russia, cars pay only 0.02 somoni per kilometer,” said Ashour, “Moreover, consumers in these countries may use alternative roads.”
The antimonopoly agency head stressed that Innovative Road Solutions Ltd is exempted from paying all types of taxes existing in Tajikistan, except social tax deducted from monthly wages of its employees. “Road tolls are used by the company only for maintaining the highway and recovering the allegedly understated tariffs,” he said.
We will recall that under the mechanism of road toll management for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway that was introduced on April 1, vehicles are charged per kilometer; cars, trucks with load capacity of up to two tons and buses with no more than 19 seats pay 30 dirams (0.3 somoni) per kilometer, while trucks with load capacity of 2 to 7 tons and buses with 20 to 39 seats pay 60 dirams per kilometer, and trucks with load capacity of 7 to 14 tons and buses with more than 40 seats pay 1.50 somoni per kilometer. Heavy trucks with load capacity of 14 and more tons pay 1.88 somoni per kilometer. To-date, two toll stations have been built on this highway connecting the center and the north of Tajikistan. In all, seven toll service stations will be built on this highway.
