DUSHANBE, August 23, Asia-Plus  -- Open joint-stock company (OJSC) “Tajiktelecom”, the state-owned national telecommunications operator of Tajikistan, does not agree with a ruling of the antimonopoly commission obligating to lower payment rates of the fixed-line phone communications.   

According to information from “Tajiktelecom”, at present the company’s expenditures exceed its revenues.  The source says the Ministry of Communications is currently considering a ruling of the Antimonopoly Committee obligating to lower the rate of fixed-line payments by time from 0.02 Somoni per minute to 0.012 Somoni.  “However, it still difficult to say whether we agree with rate fare or not,” said the Asia-Plus interlocutor, “Today we are carrying out necessary work and calculations.  The Ministry of Communications may agree with the proposed rate or propose its own variant of the pricelist.”  The source has added that the rate of the fixed-line payments by time introduced in February this year remains in effect – 0.002 Somoni per minute.  

As it had been reported earlier, the antimonopoly commission on August 16 passed ruling making changes to a pricelist of fixed-line payments by time introduced on February 1, this year.  Following the Antimonopoly Agency’s ruling the Ministry of Communications was supposed to lower fixed-line payments by time for the public by 40 percent. 

The Tajiktelecom source claims the Antimonopoly Committee has announced reduction in the rate of fixed-line payments since August 1 without coordination its decision with the Ministry Communications.   

By the antimonopoly ruling Tajiktelecom was supposed to lower the payment for fixed-line call by minute from 0.02 Somoni to 0.012 Somoni beginning from August.  

We will recall that on February, the Ministry of Communications raised the payment for fixed-line call by minute from 0.01 Somoni to 0.02 Somoni.  According to the Tajiktelecom, this decision was coordinated with the Antimonopoly Committee already in early January.