DUSHANBE, April 17, 2009, Asia-Plus -- The global financial crisis has hit activity of the country’s customs service significantly, the first deputy head of the Customs Service, Nematboy Rahmatov, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 17.

According to him, the financial crisis has resulted in Tajik customs officers failing to fulfill the customs duty collection target for the first quarter of this year.  Over the report period, we have collected customs duties for only 357.4 million somoni, which is only 75 percent of the target that has been determined for this period at 475 million somoni,” Rahmatov said.

“Because of the crisis, import of some goods into the country has significantly decreased compared to January-March 2008,” said the customs official, “Besides, the fall of world prices of a number of products imported into Tajikistan has also affected the rate of collection of customs duties.  For example, the price of one ton of gasoline has decreased from 700 US dollars last year to 350 US dollars this year.”

Rahmatov noted that car deliveries to the country had also decreased.  “In January-March 2008, 18,000 cars were delivered to Tajikistan, while in the first quarter of this year, little more than 12,000 cars have been delivered to the country,” said Rahmatov, “As a result of this, the budget over the first three months of this year has received 11 million somoni less than in the same period of last year.”

He further added that the customs duty collection target for this year was determined at 1.98 billion somoni, which was 58 percent more than last year’s target.  Rahmatov noted that the countries of the region had taken into consideration possible effects of the financial crisis while determining the customs duty collection target for this year.  He expressed hope that Tajikistan’s revised budget for 2009 would also take into consideration effects of the crisis.