DUSHANBE, May 23, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The first meeting of the Working Group (WG) for working out a new Tax Code, headed by Deputy Finance Minister Jamshed Norinov, took place at the end of last week.

According to the Finance Ministry’s Secretariat, the meeting endorsed operating schedules, duties of the WG members and discussed a number of other organizing issues.

By government’s decree the WG for working out the new Tax Code was set up on May 18 and its members include representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Economic Development and Trade, Finance as well as the Customs Service, the Tax Committee, the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management, the Association of Banks of Tajikistan and the National Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Tajikistan.

We will recall that in his annual address to Parliament, President Emomali Rahmon ordered the Government to prepare the new draft tax code before the second half of 2012.

Current tax code that was adopted in 2005 has been repeatedly criticized by international organizations and local entrepreneurs and experts.