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Case Study
Excessive requirement
for annual re-registration
of entrepreneurs is lifted
Annual Business Registration Eliminated
Photo: USAID
One of the entrepreneurs in Dushanbe’s
Green Bazaar that will benefit from the
removal of the onerous requirement.
USAID helps Tajik
business associations lift
a requirement for annual
business re-registration,
saving more than $285,000
in annual expenses for
Tajikistan’s estimated 37,000
entrepreneurs.
Challenge
Each year, Tajikistan’s 37,000 entrepreneurs used to spend money
and time to re-register their businesses. Some 600 of them also had
to undergo annual relicensing. Even though the state law did not
require these procedures to be performed annually, the country’s
tax inspectors ruled otherwise, costing each business two working
days and $6.27 in state fees each year. Those businesses subject
to annual relicensing, as well as re-registration, lost an additional
$81. In a country where a monthly teacher’s salary fell short of
$200, it was a sizeable expenditure.
Initiative
To help the country’s entrepreneurs advocate for removal of this
and other business impediments, USAID helped associations of
Sogd Oblast form a Business Association Council. Seven business
associations became members of the council to coordinate their
efforts in solving the problems that affect the business community,
advocacy for reforms in state agencies, and other activities.
In early 2007, USAID helped the Association Council prepare
a letter to the Sogd Oblast Tax Department asking to lift the
unnecessary and cumbersome re-registration requirement. The
Association Council pointed out that expiration or re-registration
dates for certification were not mentioned or required at all in the
country’s laws. The group also protested the costs associated with
the procedures, especially for businesses subject to related annual
relicensing.
Results
The Sogd Oblast Tax Department concurred with the Association
Council’s recommendation to abolish the re-registration. As a result,
in February 2007, the Tajikistan Tax Committee issued an order to
abolish the annual re-registration not only in Sogd Oblast, but also
throughout the country. Registration certifi cates are now issued
once, without annual re-registration.
“Eliminating the annual registration requirement saves time and
money for entrepreneurs,” says the Chairman of the Association of
Market Entrepreneurs Panjshanbe.
According to the estimates by the USAID project, elimination of this
procedure will save country’s businesses more than $285,000 each
year.
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