DUSHANBE, May 29, Asia-Plus — Tajik-Iranian joint venture TojIron, which assembles Iran tractor company production in Tajikistan, intends to assemble 300-500 tractors this year, Komil Sharipov, the chairman of the TojIron directors’ board, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, everything depends on the demand for their product on the market.
“At present we are waiting for spare parts from Iran for assembling 64 tractors,” Sharipov said, noting that the plant was not in operation until May. According to him, it was connected with waiting for Tajik government’s decision on tax benefits for import of spare parts necessary for production of tractors and other agricultural machines.
“Because of high taxes, production price of tractors assembled at our enterprise was high,” said Sharipov. “At present production has resumed and we hope to bring it to up to 300-500 tractors per year.”
The current price of a tractor assembled at the JV TojIron is $17,500.
As it had been reported earlier, by government’s resolution of February 6 2008 on making amendments to the resolution on the country’s budget for 2008 spare parts imported into the country for production of tractors and other agricultural machines are exempted from a 20 percent value added tax (VAT) and 5 percent customs duties.
According to the new customs regulations, the new series of TojIron products will be 25 percent cheaper.
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. The enterprise has the capacity to assemble up to 2,000 tractors a year. The plant will mainly supply Tajik farmers. However, they also plan to export their tractors to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan.
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.
