DUSHANBE, October 24, 2014, Asia-Plus — Initiated by the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Economy and Finance, parliament hearings over the 2014 budget administration process took place on October 24.
Economic bloc ministries reported to the parliament on the process of implementation of the country’s law on the national budget for 2014.
Speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Finance Abdusalom Qurbonov noted that sanctions imposed on Russia by the West and the Ukrainian conflict have not affected Tajikistan’s economy.
The First Deputy Minister of Finance, Jamoliddin Nouraliyev, noted that the Ministry of Finance had set up a working group to study possible negative effects of the West’s sanctions against Russia and the Ukrainian conflict on Tajikistan.
“No serious negative effects have been reported over the first nine months of this year, only labor migrants’ remittances have decreased inconsiderably,” the deputy finance minister noted.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, Nouriddin Mahmadov, noted that the possibility of the negative effect of the Western sanctions against Russia on Tajikistan was high.
Asked about the reasons for the fall in the exchange rate of the Tajik national currency, the somoni, against the dollar, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) head Abdijabbor Shirinov said that the somoni has lost 4.8 percent of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
“One of the main reasons for the fall in the exchange rate of the somoni against the dollar is directly associated with the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, which is one of the main trading partners of Tajikistan,” Tajik central bank head noted.
A special attention during the meeting was paid to the issues related to timely payment of wages, pensions and allowances, financing of construction of the strategically important facilities in energy, transport, social and agrarian sectors.
Finance Minister Abdusalom Qurbonov noted that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 6.9 percent in a year to September 30, 2014, reaching 31.6 billion somoni and the revenue part of the national budget for January-September this year has been overfulfilled by 2.5 percent.
The minister stressed that an average monthly wage last month amounted to 815.00 somoni, which was 11 percent more than in the same period last year.
“More than 2.5 billion somoni have been allocated over the first nine months of this year for providing the energy independence of the country, which was 300 million somoni more than in the same period last year,” Qurbonov said.
