DUSHANBE, January 22, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Customs Service is to transfer 2.1 billion somoni to the country’s budget this year, Nematboy Rahmatov, first deputy chief of the Customs Service, announced at a press conference in Dushanbe on January 21.

He noted that customs officers were taking efforts to fulfill this year’s customs duty collection target despite subjective factors such as the global financial crisis.

We will recall that an initial customs duty collection target was determined at 2 billion somoni but speaking at a January 15-15 government session, the president charged customs officers to collect further 100 million somoni in addition to the target.

According to Rahmatov, customs officers last year transferred 1.629 billion somoni to the national budget, which was 366 million somoni more than it had been originally planned.