The Government of Tajikistan has issued a number of regulations to write off tax debts of some taxpayers and grant deferral of tax payments to others.
Thus, according to government’s regulation posted on the Justice Ministry’s legal information portal, Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Tajiktelecom (Tajikistan’s national fixed-line telecommunications provider), which is subordinate to the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan, is exempted from paying back tax debts.
Under this regulation, the Government writes off Tajiktelecom’s 11 million somonis (equivalent to about 1 million U.S. dollars) tax debt, including about 5.5 million somonis in tax arrears and more than 5.5 million somonis in fines and default interest.
In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Tajik chief tax officer Nusratullo Davlatzoda noted on February 18, 2021 that OJSC) Tajiktelecom is among the most incorrigible tax dodgers. According to him, Tajiktelecom’s tax debt amounts to 86 million somonis (equivalent to 7.6 million U.S. dollars).
In a statement delivered at the online conference on Digital Economy in Tajikistan, Jan-Peter Olters, Country Manager, World Bank Office in Tajikistan, noted that the current situation is holding back the development of the telecommunications market in the country.
He proposed to separate the regulator of this sector from its subordinate operator for the development of the telecommunications sector.
Recall, the sector is regulated by the communications service agency. At the same time, the communications service agency manages the national operator Tajiktelecom. This operator received a monopoly on the supply of Internet traffic to the country and sell it to private operators.
If the Communications Service is prohibited from doing business in the telecommunications market, this will contribute to attraction of investment, emergence of new private operators, introduction of modern infrastructure, decrease in cost of Internet and thus improvement of access to Internet, Mr. Jan-Peter Olters noted.
