DUSHANBE, July 26, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Finance (MoF) plans to fill in shortage of the national budget due to attraction of additional loans and grants, Finance Minister Safarali Najmiddinov told reporters on July 26.

According to him, the ministry has submitted the plan of actions for defrayal of deficient amounts in the national budget for the second-year of 2010 for consideration to the government.   “The plan contains specific points on implementation of the budget for each of ministries and departments,” said the minister, “We do not offer to increase the number of taxes or raise the tax rates, we offer to increase production inside the country.

“I believe customs and tax officers will cope with the task and implement the plan of actions developed by the government,” Deputy Minister of Finance, Jamshed Norinov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus, following the news conference.

He noted that the government was not going to freeze the construction of facilities funded from the budget.  “I think we will implement the republican budget,” the deputy minister said.

According to the MoF data, predictive indices of the national budget exceed 6 billion somoni.  Tax and customs payments amount to 4.85 billion and the budget deficit is expected to stand at 245 million somoni this year.

We will recall that Tajikistan’s national budget has received taxes some 180 million somoni less in the first half-year of 2010.  According to local experts, the main factors that contributed to tax deficiency are the global financial and economic crisis and unfounded halting of Tajikistan-bound freight cars on Uzbek territory.