Kyrgyz drivers have complained about Tajik authorities’ decision to introduce an environmental fee for Kyrgyz vehicles entering Tajikistan’s territory.
Kyrgyz media reports say a group of Kyrgyz drivers on December 19 met on this subject with the authorities of Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region bordering Tajikistan’s northern Sughd province.
The first deputy head of Batken region, Alisher Abdrakhmanov, promised to conduct negotiations on reducing the fee with the authorities of the Tajik Sughd province.
The fee rate ranges from 500 to 2,500 somoni depending on the type of a vehicle. The fee that was introduced on December 15 is collected for pollution of air.
Tajik government adopted a decree on introducing the environmental fee for Kyrgyz vehicles entering the territory of Tajikistan on November 29. The environmental fee for motorcycle amounts to 62 somoni (equivalent to some 500 Kyrgyz som), for cars – 124 somoni (equivalent to 1,000 Kyrgyz som), for minivans – 250 somoni (equivalent to 2,000 Kyrgyz som), and for trucks – 300 somoni (equivalent to some 2,400 Kyrgyz som).
It is to be noted that there are two Tajik exclaves in Kyrgyzstan. One of them is Vorukh, which is populated by some 32,000 people, the vast majority of them Tajiks. Legally, Vorukh is part of Tajikistan, but due to past redrawing of borders, it exists as an exclave some 20 kilometers inside Kyrgyzstan.
Besides, up to 80 vehicles proceed every day via the Qizil-Bel border crossing point (BCP) on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
