In a statement delivered at a meeting with senior representatives of the country’s fiscal agencies (Tax Committee and Customs Service) and banks, President Emomali Rahmon revealed on May 10 that corruption in the tax collection system alone cost the country at 119 million somoni over the past decade.
Tax officers in the provinces account for 118 mllion U.S. dollars of this amount, the President said, expressing concern about increase in corruption among employees of the Tax Committee, the Customs Service and the Ministry of Finance.
Over the past ten years, employees of these agencies have committed more than 700 corruption-related crimes, the head of state noted.
According to him, inspections conducted by the anticorruption agencies in the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Committee and the Customs Service over the past decade have revealed a total of 190 million somoni worth of damage caused mostly by concealment of tax obligations and payments.
“Damage revealed by the anticorruption agency in the financial system has amounted to 45 million somoni and damage caused by corruption in the tax collection system over than past ten years has amounted to 119 million somoni,” the president said.
In 2018 alone, corruption in the tax collection system cost the country at 27 million somoni, which was 25.5 million somoni more than in 2009.
Over the past decade, 500 employees of financial, tax and customs spheres have been implicated in wrongdoing, and disciplinary and administrative action have been imposed upon them; 57 of them were sacked.
