DUSHANBE, January 26, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Finance will offer the Government to raise the rates on excise taxes on oil products, alcohol drinks and tobacco goods, Minister of Finance, Safarali Najmiddinov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 25.

According to him, many issues arose during the discussion of a new edition of country’s tax code.  “The proposal to introduce the tax on environmental safety was not supported because the number of taxes was reduced, and therefore, we offered to increase the excise tax rates,” the minister told Asia-plus in an interview after the news conference.

Najmiddinov said they offered to raise the rate of excise tax on oil products from 40 to 90 euros per one ton.

“Compared to other countries excise taxes in Tajikistan are very low and they account for only 2 percent of the revenue part of the national budget,” said the minister. “We have decided to raise the issue of increasing the rate of excise tax on the oil products after the signing of an agreement between Tajikistan and Russian on duty-free delivery of Russian oil products to Tajikistan.”

He added that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management had supported that offer.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Industries, Gul Sherali, told journalists on January 23 that he opposes increase in the rate of excise tax on oil products because the excise tax rise will lead to increase in fuel prices in the country.