Tajikistan’s Tax Committee has confirmed information about tax claim imposed on the mobile phone service provider, Tcell.
“We revealed huge cost of tax evasion while inspecting the company,” Nustratullo Davlatzoda, the head of the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on January 20.
According to him, the company has decided to appeal the tax claim for more than 155 million somoni.
Tajik chief tax officer stressed that cases of huge cost of tax evasion had been revealed in other mobile phone operators as well.
“Thus, the amount of tax evasion revealed during the tax audit conducted at Tacom (Beeline) mobile phone operator is 151.3 million somoni,” Davlatzoda noted.
“To-date, Tacom has repaid 80 percent of its tax debts and fines,” said Tajik chief tax officer. “I hope the company will repay the remaining debt until March this year.”
Megafon-Tajikistan, daughter company of Russia’s Megafon, reportedly evaded 155 million somoni in taxes. “The company has partially repaid its tax debts,” Davlatzoda noted.
Recall, Tcell has said it is appealing what it considers an illegal tax claim for around $19.5 million. Tcell, is controlled by a company that is in turn 60 percent owned by Scandinavian telecommunications giant Telia Company AB, said on January 19 that the claim is based on inexistent revenues.
Telia Company, which is currently going through the process of divesting itself of its interests in Tcell, said the claim for 155 million somoni follows a tax audit for the period May 2015 through June 2016 and is equivalent to Tcell earnings for the entirety of 2015.
Meanwhile, EuriasaNet.org says that Megafon-Tajikistan is being hit up for 300 million somoni. And Beeline, the brand of the local affiliate of Russia’s Vimpelcom, is said to be facing a fine of around 350 million somoni.
Tajikistan’s mobile phone companies first faced similar fines to these in 2014. That year, Megafon-Tajikistan was fined 95 million somoni, although the company managed to argue through the courts to have that reduced to 20 million somoni. Beeline was pumped for 21.2 million, but paid up only 4.8 million somoni. But yet another company, Vavilon Mobile, was unable to get off the hook and had to pay out a whopping 341 million somoni in installments.
The government several years ago imposed a 3 percent excise tax on communications service and then introduced an 18 percent sales tax on incoming and outgoing calls.
And as a result of a decision adopted earlier this month, mobile phone operators in Tajikistan have to increase the cost of outgoing calls to Russia by 20 percent, up to 1.20 somoni per minute beginning on January 20. Only four months ago, the cost of a call to Russia per minute was only 0.69 somoni.
Mobile phone companies have said that this additional cost had been incurred by the fact that calls are now rerouted through the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center, a network gateway run by state-owned telecommunications company Tojiktelecom, which is in turn owned by the state communications agency. The gateway has been described by the authorities as aimed at “ensuring national and information security.”
