Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Since early March 2018, citizens of Tajikistan aren’t able to send money abroad to persons who are not citizens of the country, Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported on May 7.
According to the information, changes in regulatory acts concerning the transfers by the National Bank of Tajikistan have led to certain problems for the citizens of the republic.
The news agency referred to a Tajik citizen, Tatyana Ivanova, who wanted to send a small amount in the US currency to her relatives in Ukraine. But during the whole month she received a refusal to make a translation in almost all banks of the country.
“The banks said they received instructions from the National Bank not to accept money transfers intended for individuals with citizenship of another country. That is, a citizen of Tajikistan does not have the right to send money to persons who are not citizens of Tajikistan,” Tatyana cited an employee of one of the commercial banks.
Tatyana added that eventually she succeeded sending money to her relatives, but to do this, she had to find a man with a Russian passport, who accepted the transfer on his name.
The NBT introduced amendments to the instruction “On the procedure for carrying out money transfer operations by individuals without opening bank accounts” in the early March 2018.
According to the amendments, residents of Tajikistan can transfer money for up to 87.5 thousand somoni to other residents of the country without opening a bank account. The money transfer to non-citizens is not allowed though.
Financial expert Nuriddin Hakimov described these restrictions as a kind of counteraction of the Tajik authorities to the terrorism and extremism financing.
“However, I do not think that these measures will have the necessary effect. Sponsors of terrorists, if they are in our country, can use modern electronic technologies to realize their intentions, while remaining incognito. Ordinary bank transfers are used by absolutely harmless people who will suffer from the innovations of the National Bank,” the expert concluded.
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