Over the first six months of this year, Tajikistan’s national budget has received 80.3 million somoni less than it was expected because of decline in incomes of cell phone companies.
The first deputy head of the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, Ayubjon Solehzoda, remarked this at a meeting with reporters in Dushanbe on August 2.
“Over the first six months of this year, tax receipts from cell phone companies have declined by 80.6 million somoni compared to the same period last year,” said Solehzoda. “This manly concerns Telecom Technology, Tacom LLC, CJSC TT-Mobile and Tojiktelecom”
According to him, the cell phone companies’ incomes have declined due to reduction of international calls.
Recall, the Antimonopoly Agency announced in early March that as of March 27, mobile telecommunication services providers will be able to sell online data for no less than 0.05 somoni per megabyte and the price for one minute of mobile international call, including NGN communications, will amount to no less than 1.00 somoni (taxes not included).
The March 4 order was justified by the law of supply and demand. The Antimonopoly Agency said mobile operators would now be in a position to provide better online speeds.
The tax authorities have supported the decision to raise the Internet prices. According to the findings of survey conducted by tax officers, cell phone users in Tajikistan have begun using mostly telematics services (Viber, Instagram, Telegram, IMO, Facebook, Twitter and others) that has led to “decrease in the volume of voice communications.”
The volume of taxes from these services (voice communications) have reportedly fallen nearly 67 percent over the past three years, while incomes of cell phone operators have not decreased over the report period, according to the Tax Committee.
Meanwhile, the volume of telematics services has increased nearly three times over the same three-year period.
President Emomali Rahmon, however, cancelled the Antimonopoly Agency’s order to raise Internet rates. On April 23, President Rahmon issued an order that reversed the Internet rate hikes
