Tajik authorities have set up the register of enterprises and individual entrepreneurs that are exempted from inspections for two years. 

According to press center of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest), the form and procedure of carrying out the register of the privately owned industrial production facilities were discussed and endorsed at a meeting of the Council for Coordination of Activities of Inspection Bodies that took place in Dushanbe on February 28.  

The Council reportedly discussed the submitted list of industrial production facilities and made decision on putting them on the register.  

Speaking at the meeting, representatives of the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan noted that 151,885 industrial production facilities now operate in the country. 

According to the statistical data from the Tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, some 302,000 economic entities now operate in Tajikistan, which is 12,600 entities more compared to the beginning of 2017.       

Meanwhile, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, locally known as Radio Ozodi, citing the Association of Entrepreneurs of Tajikistan, said on December 13 that more than 200,000 people engaged in various forms of private enterprise — from anything as trivial as running a market stall — simply gave up in 2017.

The worst affected was the northern Sughd province (65,000), followed by Dushanbe (50,000), Khatlon province (42,000), districts subordinate to the center (40,000) and the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (4,000). 

Experts suggest this has happened mainly because of high taxes and the relentless demands for bribes from inspecting officials. 

As it had been reported earlier, by president’s decree issue don January 16 a two-year moratorium on inspections of privately owned industrial production facilities was introduced in Tajikistan. 

Tajik president’s official website noted on January 23 that the decree was aimed at creating a favorable climate for the development of productive entrepreneurship.

At the same time, the statement notes that tax officials, prosecutors, the auditing chamber and anticorruption officials and the National Bank will still be allowed to run checks.  

Under the moratorium decree, checks could only go ahead when there was a suspicion that consumer rights were somehow being violated.