Tajik banks deny reports that they allegedly refuse to pay out remittances on a paper passport as absolutely ‘unfounded’.

Local banks say they have not received such an instruction and customers can receive remittances on any valid passports.  

Meanwhile, some residents of Tajikistan say banks have begun refusing to serve them on paper passports and demand the so-called plastic passports (electronic identification cards).

The banks, however, deny these reports saying that customers can receive remittances on any valid passports.  

The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) also says that it has not given such an instruction to the banks and all banking services should available on any valid passport.  

Recall, Tajik authorities introduced new requirements for selling am registering SIM cards in February in year.  Only a type of passport introduced in 2014 can be used for registration of SIM cards.

Changes made to the government’s decree “On the Procedure and Requirements for Connection to Telecommunications Networks and the Provision of Services Related to Them” provides for introducing new requirements for selling SIM cards.  Tajikistan citizens are now allowed to buy only up to two SIM cards in all and only a type of passport introduced in 2014 can be used for registration of SIM cards.

The decree on making changes to the mentioned government’s decree was signed by the President on February 9 and took effect on February 15 after it was published in Jumhuriyat newspaper, an official mouthpiece of the Government of Tajikistan. 

The communication service agency should re-register all SIM cars that were registered with use of an old type of passport within six months beginning on February 15.   .

The cost of the type of passport introduced in 2014 is 94.3 somoni. 

The electronic identification card was introduced in Tajikistan in March 2014.  

An identification card is an official document, which identifies a person, including in various electronic systems, which is usually made in a format of a plastic card.  An identification card usually contains information about the holder of the card in text, machine-reading and electronic formats, including his/her photograph, name, personal number, specimen signature, and biometric information, written into an electronic chip or on a magnetic strip.

The decree reads the following: “With the aim of ensuring constitutional rights of citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan and public order, and based on Article 69 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, I hereby decree to issue identification cards for citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan as of 1 March, 2014.”

With that, the internal passport of the citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan is valid within the territory of Tajikistan until its expiration, which means that both the electronic and the paper document will be valid.