Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament has approved amendments to the country’s administrative code that would toughen penalty for commodity smuggling.
Presenting the bill to lawmakers on November 10, the head of Customs Service, Abdufattohoh Ghoib, said the goal of the amendments was to prevent contraband from being smuggled into the country.
The amendments reportedly stipulate that a huge fine will be imposed on smugglers and their mobile means will be confiscated.
Smugglers will now face a fine equal to the double cost of the contraband and confiscation of their mobile means.
Under the current administrative code, the fine does not exceed the single fold cost of the contraband.
Speaking at the Majlisi Namoyandagon session, Ghoib noted that contraband was mainly being smuggled into Tajikistan from neighboring Kyrgyzstan.
According to him, unsolved issues related to delineation of Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan facilitate smuggling of commodities out of Kyrgyzstan.
“201 cases of commodity smuggling worth 4.33 million somoni were reported in September alone,” Tajik chief customs officer told lawmakers today.
The proposed legislation now has to be seconded by the upper house (Majlisi Milli) of parliament and then signed by President Emomali Rahmon to become law.
