DUSHANBE, July 31, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- A July 30 meeting of the government, presided over by President Emomali Rahmon, considered the forecast of macroeconomic indicators designed for 2013-2015.

The president’s official website reports that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the next three years is expected to stand at 42.1 billion somoni in 2013, 48.2 billion somoni in 2014 and 54.7 billion somoni in 2015.

The economic growth rate is expected to be 7.4 percent in 2013 and 7.5 percent in 2014 and 2015.

 The exchange rate of the national currency, the somoni, against the dollar is expected to stand at 4.90:1 in 2013, 4.94:1 in 2014 and 4.99:1 in 2015.  

The meeting also considered the new edition of the tax code, which is supposed to be introduced gradually from 2013 to 2017, the source said.

We will recall that the new edition of the tax code of Tajikistan offers reduction in the number of types of taxes by half -- from 21 to 10.  The new edition of the tax code, in particular, offers to reduce the number of republican taxes from 17 to 8 and the number of local taxes from four to two.

By government’s decree the Working (WG) for working out the new Tax Code was set up on May 18, 2011 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.  The edition of the country’s tax code must be prepared by April 1, 2012.

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