DUSHANBE, November 10, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The government has asked the parliament to exempt a cement plant under construction from paying value added tax (VAT) and customs duties on shipment of equipment.

“20 million U.S. dollars worth of equipment and technologies will be exempted from paying 4.6 million U.S. dollars in VAT and customs duties,” Safarali Gulov, the deputy head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Economy and Finance, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

We will recall that the construction of a new cement plant with annual capacity of 600,000 tons officially began at the Chormaghzak Pass, Vahdat Township on October 1. 

The cost of the project is more than 20 million U.S. dollars and the plant is expected to be built in eight months.

A Tajik-Chinese joint venture, TOJCHIN, is reportedly building the new cement plant.

In the near future, they plan to increase the investment volumes to 50 million U.S. dollars and to raise the plant’s annual capacity to 1.5 million tons.  In all, 250 people will be placed in permanent jobs.

“The plant pledges to irrigate 2,000 hectares of lands in Vahdat,” Gulov noted.      

The Vahdat cement plant will produce two types of cement – M-500 and M-600.

Over the first ten months of this year Tajikistan has produced more than 1 million tons of cement, which was 776,000 tons more than in the same period last year.

Ten cement plants now operate in Tajikistan.  Tajikistan’s annual requirements in cement have sharply increased in connection with construction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP), highways and other facilities of the nationwide significance.  Current Tajikistan’s annual requirements in cement are 2 million tons.

In 2013, Tajikistan produced 385,000 tons of cement.  Cement shortages are covered by cement deliveries from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.