IMF | CCAMTAC

Tax Administration (March 4–15, 2024). In response to a request from the Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan, this combined IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department / CCAMTAC mission reviewed progress of the Government’s Medium-Term State Revenue Program (MTSRP) as this related to Tax Committee (TC) responsibilities. The mission identified priority tax administration measures that can supplement the scope of MTSRP initiatives. The authorities supported the establishment of a mid-term CD program supporting MTSRP implementation, including engagement of a resident revenue administration advisor to the TC augmented by CCAMTAC support.

Capacity Development Scoping Visit (September 18 – 22, 2023).

At the request of the Tax Committee (TC) of Tajikistan, a visit was undertaken to scope potential areas for capacity development (CD) support following recommendations made during a combined IMF-FAD-CCAMTAC tax administration

Tax Administration (December 1 – 16, 2022).

A tax administration diagnostic in-person mission was conducted by the IMF FAD and CCAMTAC in response to a request by the Minister of Finance. The mission assessed current reform initiatives and functions of Tajikistan's Tax Committee. This initial phase of CD engagement provided support to the authorities in the identification of high-level tax administration reforms and options for revenue generation as an input to the formulation of a Medium-term Revenue Strategy (MTRS). The mission also provided further awareness building to the Ministry of Finance and Tax Committee on the components of, and the steps needed to formulate, an MTRS.

Tax Administration (February 15-19, 2021)

An expert provided assistance with reviewing the draft tax code. A declared objective of the authorities’ tax reform is to strengthen job creation in the private sector by lowering the tax burden on businesses while broadening the tax base.  An expert reviewed the draft Tax Code (TC) and provided written comments on tax administration aspects in the draft.

Public Financial Management Assessment (PIMA) and Climate PIMA (November 30 – December 13, 2023).
CCAMTAC supported an IMF-FAD led mission, to conduct a PIMA and associated C-PIMA. The diagnostic was undertaken with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB). The mission conducted meetings with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) involved in public investment and climate change in Tajikistan and developed a report and associated reform action plan to support public investment management reforms over the medium term.  Tajikistan, with its glacier-fed rivers and reliance on hydropower, is especially susceptible to climate change, highlighting the critical need for a robust climate-sensitive approach in its public investment management. The mission discussions aimed to address these needs.

State-Owned Enterprise Fiscal Risks Statements (September 23 – October 7, 2022).

The main purpose of this mostly in-person mission was to assist the Ministry of Finance to prepare the State-Owned Enterprises Fiscal Risks Statement (SOE FRS). It was approved by the Government and published on the ministry’s website. The preparation and publication of SOE FRSs in Tajikistan began in 2012 but was interrupted in 2019-2021. The mission also conducted training for Ministry of Finance’s staff on the FAD’s SOE Fiscal Stress Test tool.

State-owned enterprises Fiscal Risks Assessment (March 28–April 29, 2022)

This remote mission followed the June – September 2021 mission that assisted the Ministry of Finance to prepare a first draft of the next Fiscal Risks Management Strategy (FRMS). The mission assisted the ministry in finalizing its draft of the FRMS and conducted a training for state-owned enterprises (SOE) and ministry’s new staff on SOE fiscal risks assessment.  

Strengthening Fiscal Risks Management and Disclosure (June 28 - September 7, 2021)

Building on the achievements of the first State-owned Enterprise (SOE) Fiscal Risks Management Strategy 2021-2025, CCAMTAC’s PFM advisor and a short-term expert helped draft the successor strategy, planned to cover 2021-2025. They have assisted the Ministry of Finance to resume the preparation and publication of the annual fiscal risks statements, in an updated format. They have also assisted the Ministry of Finance to implement the recently-approved methodology for establishing a buffer in the state budget to accommodate the materialization of SOE fiscal risks.

Market-based Financing mission (January 25 – February 2, 2024).
A joint MCMDM-CCAMTAC scoping mission visited Dushanbe. The mission team outlined the key steps required for moving to market-based financing by the government and focused discussions on: (i) the legal framework, (ii) operational framework and infrastructure for issuance of government securities (iii) monetary policy operating framework and (iv) coordination and communication between counterparts. 

Improving Liquidity Forecasting and Management (August 14 – 18 and August 21 – 25, 2023).
The hybrid, follow-upmission assisted the National Bank of Tajikistan in enhancing liquidity management and forecasting frameworks and discussed the modernization of the whole operational framework and the revision of internal processes for monetary policy implementation. The mission re-estimated demand for reserves and streamlined tables for liquidity monitoring to ensure their revision more frequently in line with changing liquidity conditions in the system. Experts also conducted a 3-day training for the NBT experts on efficient liquidity management and its role in overall monetary policy implementation.

Liquidity Forecasting (September 26 – 30, 2022).

The mission team assisted the National Bank of Tajikistan to modernize liquidity forecasting frameworks. The mission evaluated and advised on liquidity forecasting techniques, set up a new forecasting tool and trained authorities on how to employ it in their daily work. The new tool allowed substantially improve the quality of forecasts. The mission discussed the need to further improve operational framework of monetary policy.

GFS/ PSDS mission (April 15–26, 2024). This joint CCAMTAC and D4D mission reviewed quarterly GFS for Q4 2023 and advised on the reconciliation of Q1-Q4 2022 with 2022 annual GFS reporting. In this context, the team met with the representatives of the National Bank of Tajikistan to reconcile the figures from the monetary survey with those reported by the treasury department (TD) of Ministry of Finance. The mission delivered a training on PSDS and its linkages with GFS to the staff of debt divisions and the TD. The team held a meeting with the staff of the fiscal risks department on the reporting of SOEs to ministry. The Ministry of Finance has recently created a GFS unit in the its budget department. The mission advised the authorities on the tasks of that unit and cooperation with other divisions.

GFS& PSDS (April 24 – May 5, 2023)

The mission assisted the authorities in: (i) finalizing and preparing for dissemination annual GFS time series for central government; (ii) expanding the time series for PSDS; and (iii) preparing the compilation processes documentation. On request from the authorities, the mission delivered a tailor-made training on GFS and PSDS. One day was devoted to the raising awareness on GFS and PSDS issues for the middle and higher management of the Ministry of Finance. Four days focused on increasing technical staff capacities. The mission also met with the Minister of Finance to discuss the possibilities of starting regular transmission and dissemination of annual GFS data via the IMF database.

Developing Government Finance Statistics (GFS) (March 1–14, 2022)

A Statistics Department (STA) short-term expert continued the previous work on improving fiscal transparency through CD in supporting implementation of the latest international statistical standards in GFS. The Ministry of Finance’s Budget Department staff with the assistance of the mission team completed the annual GFS Questionnaire for 2020. The mission also reviewed the Tajik budget classification with respect to the GFSM 2014. To expand the knowledge of all staff involved in the GFS compilation, the expert conducted a workshop on the GFSM 2014 framework for the National Research Institute of Finance, engaged in the budgetary reform towards the GFSM 2014 implementation.

GDP by expemdotire (May 22 – June 2, 2023).

The TA mission reviewed the compilation of quarterly GDP by production and expenditure and recommended several improvements in the compilation technique. The areas addressed include the compilation of financial intermediation services indirectly measured, the output of insurance, and the output of non-market services. The mission introduced benchmarking and chain-linking technique with annual overlap into compilation of quarterly GDP by both methods and recommended the introduction of quality assurance measures in data collection for a periodic quarterly economic survey of enterprises.

National Accounts (November 14 – 25, 2022).

During an in-person mission, the CCAMTAC resident advisor assisted the State Statistics Agency in developing quarterly GDP by expenditure (QGDPE) and provided training to the agency’s national accounts staff on the compilation of discrete quarterly GDP by production (QGDPP). The mission helped officials to (i) calculate household final consumption using different weights; (ii) compile quarterly data on cultivated biological resources and intellectual property products, which will allow reducing the existing statistical discrepancy significantly; and (iii) compile changes in inventories by applying quarterly average prices to the opening and closing stocks of inventories to exclude holding gains/losses.

Enhancing Price Statistics (November 29 – December 3, 2021)

This was the first mission on the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) to the Agency on Statistics of Tajikistan (TAJSTAT). With the guidance of IMF staff, the TAJSTAT obtained data and technical skills to compile a hedonic RPPI and discussed the most suitable data sources. RPPI helps to facilitate the assessment of developments and risks in property markets and thus provides a better understanding of the linkages between property markets, the real economy, and the financial sector stability.

National Workshop on Financial Programming and Policies (June 3–7, 2024). CCAMTAC together with the Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) conducted a national workshop in Dushanbe in close collaboration with the National Bank of Tajikistan. During the workshop, 28 participants from the National Bank of Tajikistan, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and the Agency of Statistics learned to analyze recent economic developments, make projections of key macroeconomic indicators and identified imbalances using the IMF Institute for Capacity Development's (ICD) Comprehensive Adaptive Expectations Model (CAEM) with actual Tajikistan data.