Tajik authorities have been thinking of restoring tax benefits for domestic millers for already two months. Meanwhile, flour prices are continuing to rise in the country.
Members of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament last week told the head of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest) Farrukh Hamralizoda that domestic millers ask to restore tax benefits on the supply of grain and sale of their products.
Hamralizoda noted that the government had also received an appeal of similar content. He noted that it could not be ruled that the government would make decision on that issue in the near future.
An official source at the Tax Committee told Asia-Plus a month ago that the government is considering the possibility of restoring tax benefits for domestic millers and flour suppliers.
According to him, taking into consideration proposals of millers they have worked out a bill on making amendments to the country’s la won the national budget for 2019.
The bill, in particular, provides for setting the rate of value added tax (VAT) for wheat delivered to the country for flour-grinding enterprises at 10 percent.
The tax benefits for domestic mills and flour suppliers were cancelled at the beginning of this year.
The current rate of VAT for wheat deliveries is 18 percent.
Meanwhile, flour prices are continuing to rise in the country. Over the first two months of this year, flour prices have risen nearly 6.0 percent in Tajikistan.
According to the official statistical data, the price for one kilogram of grade I wheat flour rose from 3.43 somoni in late December to 3.59 somoni in late January.
Specialists at the National Bank of Tajikistan said that the price hike has resulted from the rising cost of wheat in the countries that provide the bulk of Tajikistan’s wheat and flour imports and rising transit tariffs.
According to data from the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, Tajikistan has imported nearly 200,000 tons of wheat over the first two months of this year, which was 90 percent more than in the same period last year.
Over the same two-month period, Tajikistan has reportedly imported more than 12,000 tons of wheat flour, which was nearly four times more than in January-February 2018.
Kazakhstan provides the bulk of Tajikistan’s wheat and flour imports. According to Kazinform, export price for Kazakh wheat rose 24.6 percent in January this year.
