In January-August this year, the revenue part of Tajikistan’s national budget has been estimated at 18.182 billion somonis (equivalent to 1.6 billion U.S. dollars), which was 5.1 percent or 910 million somonis (equivalent to 82 million U.S. dollars) more than the revised volume, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Secretariat.
The originally planned revenue part of the budget for January-August this year was predicted to stand at 17.252 billion somonis.
The budget’s revenue part has reportedly been overfulfilled due to tax receipts. Over the reporting period, the share of tax receipts in the budget’s revenue part has amounted to about 72 percent.
In January-August this year, receipts from the value added tax (VAT), income tax and profit tax have reportedly accounted for more than 65 percent of the total tax revenues.
Representatives of the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan say the tax receipts have increased due to the country’s economic growth, appearance of new enterprises and creation of new jobs.
Meanwhile, local experts say increase in tax receipts has resulted from increasing tax burdens.
An expert on the Tajik economy, who wanted to remain unnamed, says, “To fulfill target set by the government our tax officers raise tax rates where it is still possible, and first of all for business.”
Recall, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament approved the state budget for 2021 on November 18, 2020.
Revenues were projected to be 27.6 billion somonis and expenditures were projected to stand at 28.1 billion somonis.
Tax receipts were expected to stand at 18.8 billion somonis, which is more than 68 percent of the overall volume of the revenues.
