DUSHANBE, October 26, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- A new draft law “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Tajikistan” has been submitted for consideration to the government, Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov told reporters in Dushanbe on October 25.

According to him, the bill provides for imposing an excise tax on cellular operators functioning in the country.

“While working out the bill, its authors have studied experiences of other countries in this area and international tax collection system,” said the minister, “Compared to other countries Tajikistan has the lowest tax rates for the cellular operators.  A total annual circulation of mobile communications operators functioning in the country amounts to 1.8 billion somoni, while tax receipts from them are inconsiderable as compared with this figure.”

Najmiddinov noted that the permanent budget commission had considered the bill and it would be considered at a government session soon.

Similar draft law providing for imposing an excise tax at the rate of 2 percent of the cost of cellular communications services was submitted for consideration to the government in 2007, but the government did not endorse the bill.  The new bill provides for the excise tax at the rate of 3 percent of the cost of the cellular communications services.   

 According to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, ten mobile providers now operate in Tajikistan: MLT; Babilon-Mobile; T-Cell (formerly Indigo-Tajikistan); M-Teco; Beeline; Telecom Inc (Skytel); TK-Mobile; Tajiktelecom; and Telecom Technology Ltd.