DUSHANBE, October 17, 2008, Asia-Plus -- Over the first nine months of this year, the Customs Service has transferred more than 1.202 billion somoni (TJS) to the national budget, which is 27 percent more than it was originally planned, Nematboy Rahmatov, first deputy head of the Customs Office announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on October 17.

The target for January-September has been determined at 946 million somoni, the customs official said.

He further added that the country’s external trade turnover for January-September 2008 has amounted to 3.436 billion US dollars. Including exports estimated at more than 1 billion US dollars and imports worth more than 2.337 billion US dollars.

According to him, the main trading partners of Tajikistan over the report period were: Russia (US$864 million); the Netherlands (US$417 million); Turkey (US$352 million); China (US$315 million); Kazakhstan (US$205 million); and Iran (US$183 million).

Like the previous years, primary aluminum and cotton fiber remain the main export items and alumina, electrical power and oil products are the import items, the customs official said.             

Rahmatov also noted that more than 72,000 vehicles have been delivered to the country over the same nine-month period.  Of them, 10,000 of vehicles have been delivered to the country by physical entities for private use. 

Over same period of 2007, more than 51,000 vehicles had been delivered to the country, he said.