DUSHANBE, October 25, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Tax officers have inspected a number of independent media and privately owned printing houses, Nusratullo Davlatov, the head of the Tax Committee, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 25.

According to him, they began to inspect financial activities of the privately owned printing houses Oila Print , Mushfiqi and Intishor that published independent weeklies on September 29.  “Tax officers were mainly interested in the exact number of copies of the newspapers published by these printers.  It turned out that the printers have printed newspapers without giving their circulations.”

“The inspections have revealed infringements for a total amount of 111,000 somoni and heads of these printing houses have promised to reimburse this amount within the next few days,” Tajik tax kingpin noted.

Davlatov stressed that the inspections were not connected with the latest developments in the country.  “We do not care what Tajik newspapers write,” said Davlatov, “They just must observe laws and pay taxes opportunely.  All those inspections were planned and the printers and newspapers were notified about them.”  He added that other publications and printers would also be inspected.

According to him, the process of re-registration of print media would begin in the near future.  “Only six of 64 print media of Tajikistan have been registered with the Tax Committee so far; among them are Oila , Charkhi Gardoun , Millat , Ozodagon , Biznes i Politika , and Zamoni Tojik ,” said Davlatov, “The remainder must be registered with the Tax Committee promptly.”