Thoughtless statement can be misunderstood by people, Sharif Rahimzoda, the head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Economics and Finance, told Asia-Plus in an interview commenting on MP Ismonov’s demand for dismissal of the Tajik central bank head Jamshed Nourmahmadzoda.
Sharif Rahimzoda, who had previously served as head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), considers that the current crisis situation in Tajikistan “is very sensitive and cannot tolerate dilettantism.”
“You should be the first-rate specialist in order to grasp this issue and any thoughtless statement or proposal can be interpreted by people wrong,” Rahimzoda noted.
According to him, global financial crisis and sharp reduction in migrant remittance inflows from Russia are to blame for the hard situation in which Tajik four banks found themselves.
The parliamentarian expressed confidence that the problem of customers at the distressed banks will be solved.
“According to data from the National bank of Tajikistan, Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB) has repaid 900 million somoni to its customers since the beginning of this year and its net profit over this period has amounted to 55 million somoni,”
Recall, MP Saidjaffar Ismonov today demanded dismissal of the head of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) for failure to perform his duties properly.
Speaking at the session, MP Saidjaffar Simonov noted that interest rates offered by Tajik banks to entrepreneurs and population “are acceptable only for drug dealers of Colombia and Mexico.”
“Earlier in this year, the government passed a decree to issue bonds worth 3.25 billion somoni to recapitalize four distressed banks, including Tojik Sodirot Bonk (TSB), Agroinvestbonk, Tajprombank and Fononbonk. However, customers at these banks have not yet received their money, and the National Bank cannot do anything,” Ismonov said.
The mentioned banks have been experiencing liquidity issues since 2015. Parliament in December 2016 approved a government decree to issue bonds to recapitalize the mentioned banks. TSB and Agroinvestbonk were topped up by 2.25 billion somoni (US$284 million) and 1.7 billion somoni (US$215 million) respectively.
Meanwhile, Tajprombank and Fononbonk never saw any of the 450 million somoni (US$56 million) and the 80 million somoni (US$10 million) earmarked for them respectively as the NBT on February 24 announced it was pulling their licenses.
Customers at Tajprombank and Fononbonk have been paid out 17,500 somoni (around $2,000) out of the state’s Individuals Deposits Insurance Fund. Anybody with more than that amount of money in the banks is still waiting to see how much they will get in the end.
In April, it emerged that the government decided unilaterally to allocate the $66 million it had set aside as bailout funds for Tajprombank and Fononbonk to construction work on the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP).
