DUSHANBE, March 15, Asia-Plus — An official opening of the center for realization and maintenance of tractors assembled by Tajik-Iranian joint venture TojIron was held in the Rudaki district on March 13.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Sharif Homidov, the head of the department for technical policy and infrastructure development within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said that several models of tractors assembled by TojIron had been put on display at the center-opening ceremony.
According to him, it is the first center in the country that realizes tractors and spare parts for agricultural machines.
As it had been reported earlier, TojIron, Tajik-Iranian tractor manufacturing company, has been exempted from value added tax (VAT) and customs duty for spare parts this year.
According to the TojIron manager Davron Paykov the company stood idle last year because of taxation problems and no one tractor was assembled.
Only some 30 tractors of a model of 285 have been assembled since September 2006, when the joint venture was launched. .
TojIron has capacity to assemble some 500 tractors each year ranging from different models as 285, 399, and 930. The price of the assembled tractors will not exceed US $14,000 per tractor.
Besides, the company in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Industries is developing the plan on production of some 30 percent of spare parts in Tajikistan.
We will recall that TojIron started operating with the capital of $10 million in September 2006 but failed to bear fruits due to lack of financial support as well as red tapes in importing tractor parts from Iran.
TojIron was created by an agreement between Tajik industries minister and the Iranian ambassador to Tajikistan in Dushanbe in June 2006. Under the agreement Tajikistan owns 49 percent of the shares and Iran holds a 51% ownership interest in the company.
