Member of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlis Namoyandagon) of parliament Saidjaffar Usmonzoda, who is also leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT), considers that Internet price hike can cause discontent among population and turn people against the government. According to him, the government could cancel the antimonopoly agency’s decree on raising mobile Interne prices.
“By raising mobile Internet prices we turn people against the government because the majority of the population do not know that there is a body such as Antimonopoly Agency,” Usmonzoda told Tajikistan Radio in an interview on April 19.
The subject of increasing prices mobile Internet and other mobile communications services was discussed Friday morning on the air.
Representative of the Antimonopoly Agency Rajabali Mahsiddnov, Tax Committee deputy head Khurshed Ismoilzoda, representative of Media Council Shahlo Akobirova and MP Saidjaffar Usmonzoda participated in the discussion.
Meanwhile, the communications service agency did not send its representative to the program despite invitation.
“To-date, no one opposition force has managed to turn people against the government. Citizens aged 5 to 80 use Internet and the majority of them protested against rising prices. Ahead we have elections, both parliamentary and presidential, and therefore, we cannot do so because price hike will cause discontent among the population,” DPT leader noted.
He further noted that the question arose as who is behind the decision to raise mobile communications prices.
“Which body has difficulties? The Tax Committee, the Antimonopoly Agency or the Communications Service? Who initiated this decision? I do not think that the Antimonopoly Agency was happy to make the decision on raising prices. They did so based on data and analysis provided by other structures,” Tajik MP noted.
Usmonzoda also noted that parliamentarians had discussed the price hike issue and sent their proposals for consideration to the government.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Tax Committee and Antimonopoly Agency supported the decision to raise mobile communications prices.
Recall, by decree of the state antimonopoly agency, as of April 14, the minimum fee for mobile internet connections has more than doubled. At the same time, the cost of making calls from one mobile phone provider to another has risen around threefold.
