DUSHANBE, October 5, Asia-Plus — A reform of a system of inspection of small and medium enterprises (SME) has been launched in Tajikistan.
Andrea Dall Olio, the head of International Finance Corporation (IFC) project for development of small and medium enterprises in Tajikistan, remarked this at a roundtable meeting entitled “On Inspection of Activity of Economic Entities in Tajikistan” in Dushanbe on October 5.
According to him, a survey of regulatory environment for SMEs in Tajikistan conducted by IFC last year showed that compared to 2002 a frequency of inspections increased considerably last year.
During the meeting it was noted that small and medium enterprises in Tajikistan suffer from repeated, and not always properly regulated, inspections. Because of such inspections some enterprises incur considerable expenses – a total sum of official and unofficial payments connected with the inspections amounts to 1,146 somonis for each entrepreneur per year.
Olio noted that some inspections had brought to suspension of activity of an enterprise for a month per year.
Despite of introduction by the government of inspection registration book, which is a good tool to reduce a number of unfounded inspections, only 29 percent of those surveyed said that they use this book, according to Olio. “Each entrepreneur should know that his activity should be inspected not more than twice a year,” he added.
During the meeting it was noted that procedures of inspections and technical requirements are not always clear. Besides, there are too many regulating documents and entrepreneurs are not aware well of those documents.
According to Olio, the implementation of a new law on inspections will allow creating transparent relations between enterprises and inspecting bodies.
Not only is the structure and organization of inspections sometimes inadequate, but also entrepreneurs have very low knowledge of their rights and obligations – close to 80% of SMEs have insufficient knowledge of the laws governing their activities.
To improve the business-enabling environment, the Tajikistan SME Policy Project is working with Tajikistan’s antimonopoly commission on reforming the business inspections practices.
The roundtable meeting was organized by the Tajik antimonopoly commission with support of the World Bank and IFC. Senior representatives from all ministries and organizations carrying out inspections took part in the meeting’s work.
