DUSHANBE, February 6, Asia-Plus  -- Exemption of TojIron, Tajik-Iranian tractor manufacturing company, from value added tax (VAT) and customs duty fro spare parts will allow the company working in it full capacity, the TojIron manager Davron Paykov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

According to him, the company stood idle last year because of taxation problems and no one tractor was assembled.    

Only some 30 tractors of a model of 285 have been assembled since September 2006, when the joint venture was launched..  Some of them are currently being tested in the Khatlon province, while others are still in the company’s warehouses, Paykov said.  

On the plans for this year, the manager said that they plan to assemble some 500 tractors of models as 399 and 933 in 2008.  

“Besides, our company in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Industries is developing the plan on production of some 30 percent of spare parts in Tajikistan,” Paykov said.   

In the meantime, Iran’s news agency IRNA reported that according to the new customs regulations, the new series of TojIron products are 25 percent cheaper.

We will recall that TojIron started operating with the capital of $10 million in September 2006 but failed to bear fruits due to lack of financial support as well as red tapes in importing tractor parts from Iran.  

Komil Sharipov, chairman of the TojIron board told Asia-Plus in September 2006 that the enterprise has the capacity to assemble up to 3,000 tractors a year, some 10-15 tractors a day.  ”But everything depends on the demand for our product on the market,” Sharipov added.  He said that they will mainly supply Tajik farmers. ”However, we also plan to export our tractors to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan,” he said.  “We have also had interest from the Tajik regions and neighboring countries.”   Sharipov said the price of the assembled tractors will not exceed US $14,000 per tractor. 

The first tractors were delivered to Tajikistan from Iran for testing in 2004.  The tractors were tested in Danghara, Hissor, Rasht and Rudaki, and they proved useful.  

Meanwhile, IRNA said that TojIron has capacity to assemble some 500 tractors each year ranging from different models as 285, 399, and 930.

TojIron was created by an agreement between Tajik industries minister and the Iranian ambassador to Tajikistan in Dushanbe in June 2006. Under the agreement Tajikistan owns 49 percent of the shares and Iran holds a 51% ownership interest in the company.