DUSHANBE, October 31, Asia-Plus — Parliamentary discussions of the national budget for 2008 have been concluded by an enlarged meeting of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Economy, Budget, Finance and Taxes that was held in Dushanbe on October 30.
Muhammadato Sultonov, a spokesman for the Majlisi Namoyandagon (MN), said senior representatives from relevant ministries and organizations had also taken pat at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, the First Deputy Chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon also head of a working group for discussion of the draft budget, noted that the 2008 budget bill is aimed at improving living conditions of the population and reducing poverty in the country.
Gulchehra Bozorova, chairwoman of the MN Committee on Economy, Budget, Finance and Taxes, said that the working consisting of MPs, representatives of the ministries of finance and economy and other relevant organizations had held nine sittings to discuss the draft budget for 2008, the spokesman said.
“The Majlisi Namoyandagon committees have made 97 proposals on improving the bill, and 62 of them have been accepted wholly and 9 others have been accepted partially,” Bozorva said.
The discussions mainly focused on the issues of exempting grain and flour imports from the value-added tax (VAT), increasing funds or purchase of flour and seed wheat, replenishing state supplies of basic food products and consumer goods, as well as constructing schools, polyclinics and rural outpatient clinics, providing the population with safe drinking water, natural gas and electrical power, etc.
