DUSHANBE, November 17, 2010, Asia-Plus -- A new draft law imposing excise tax on cellular communications services will be considered by the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) soon, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The source at a MoF says the government has already considered the bill and parliament’s lower house is expected to consider it until the end of November.  “If the law is endorsed it will take effect beginning on January 1, 2011,” he said.

According to him, the bill provides for making amendments to Article 240 of Tajikistan’s Tax Code and putting the cellular communications services on the list of commodities subject to excise tax.  “The new bill provides for the excise tax at the rate of 3 percent of the cost of the cellular communications services,” the source said.

It is to be noted that 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.

We will recall that in a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov revealed on October 25 that 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.  “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.

According to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, nine 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.