DUSHANBE, November 11, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Over 57 million liters of oil products have been smuggled into Tajikistan over the first ten months of this year, which is 54 million liters more than in the same period last year, Abdurahim Umariyon, a spokesman for the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, oil products have been smuggled into Tajikistan mostly via the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.  “More that 321 fuel smuggling attempts have been averted at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in the northern Sughd province this year and more than 3 million liters of the smuggled fuels have been confiscated,” Umariyon noted.

Qurbon Abdunazarov, an official with the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, says that the fuel smuggling attempts have been also reported at the Tajik-Uzbek border.  “14 such cases have been registered this year at the Tajik-Uzbek border in the Tursunzoda district (western Tajikistan),” Abdunazarov said.

According to him, 53.5 million liters of undeclared oil products have been stopped at the customs control point in Tursunzoda.   “Entities delivering those oil products without appropriate documents to Tajikistan have been fined, but they have declared them later in accordance with the country’s customs legislation,” Abdunazarov noted.