OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bill under review by Kazakhstan’s parliament threatens the independence of NGOs in the country, the UN said. The bill is being likened to a law in Russia which cut NGOs’ ability to receive funding from overseas. If the law is passed, the Kazakh government will control funding to all civil society groups.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human Rights activists in Kazakhstan have asked President Nursultan Nazarbayev to veto a bill being reviewed by the Senate which will make it harder for domestic NGOs to receive funding from overseas. Campaigners said the bill is a form of state control over NGOs.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Armenian government approved a second draft of a new tax code that it hopes will pull in extra revenue and cut its deficit. At its core, media reported that the tax code will target closing tax benefits.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 5 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Signalling that a regional economic crisis is worse than it had thought, the Georgian finance ministry said it would scrap a flagship policy that would have cut corporation tax and encouraged business growth.
The Georgian Dream government said earlier this year that it wanted to copy an Estonian tax policy that scrapped corporation tax on profit re-invested into businesses in order to generate more growth. The downside was that, in the short term at least, tax receipts would also drop.
And now, at a meeting to discuss the government’s proposed budget for 2016, deputy finance minister Giorgi Kakauridze said that plans to introduce the tax cuts this year had been pushed back indefinitely.
“This is quite a difficult process, fraught with quite a lot of risk,” media quoted Mr Kvirikashvili as saying. “Yes this [model] has its positive sides, but there are lots of negative aspects as well, so it has to be thoroughly considered. No final decision has been made in which direction this reform will go.”
The bottom line is that Georgia’s budget relies heavily on corporation tax. To cut this tax now, with the economy worsening, would be fool- hardy, the government appears to have decided.
Analysts, though, were scathing and said the tax reform should never have been discussed in the first place.
“It is not the first time Georgian Dream has promised changes they’re unable to keep. They should have known that the economic crisis would make this reform a bad idea.” said Giorgi Aptsiauri, economist at the Georgian Institute of Politics. “Income from corporation tax is a large part of the budget. They can not afford a cut in revenue with the current economic situation.”
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan have placed a senior general under house arrest after allegations of corruption were levied against him by Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, media reported.
If Ms Karimova is the source of the allegations it shows that she may still hold influence in Uzbekistan where she has been held under house arrest since March 2014.
The story also shows just how deep the extent of corruption in Uzbekistan is.
The interned general is Hayot Sharifhojayev, who oversaw the corruption investigation into Ms Karimova and her associates, giving her plenty of motive for revenge.
According to a report published by the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Gen. Sharifhojayev was arrested in July and has now been placed under house arrest.
The report said that he had been caught trying to sell assets which he had confiscated from Ms Karimova, although it didn’t specify what exactly he was trying to sell.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia moved a step closer to ditch- ing prison sentences for people found with a small amount of marijuana after a parliamentary committee backed the proposal. The legal affairs committee said that it still wanted marijuana use to be illegal but not punishable with a prison sentence. Parliament is likely to vote on the issue later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s High Court decreed the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) a terrorist organisation and banned it, wiping the only real opposition party from the country.
The high court statement published by the Khovar state news agency accused the IRPT of committing crimes of terrorist acts and spreading provocative materials.
Pressure on the IRPT has been building.
The General Prosecutor’s Office earlier accused the IRPT leadership of involvement in double attacks on police checkpoints last month that killed two dozen people. It said the mastermind of the attacks had been deputy defence minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda.
Police also detained Buzurgmehr Yorov, an IRPT lawyer, after he started defending 13 top party members arrested for the attacks. Mr Yorov has reportedly been charged with fraud and corruption crimes.
Earlier this year, the Tajik authorities also prosecuted Group 24, another political party that it deemed to be plotting against it.
An analyst who declined to be named said: “It is the sign of zero tolerance of any kind of political opposition, no matter whether they are religious or secular. Tajikistan has now become a one-party state.”
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan introduced new labelling rules for alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, media reported. The labels are described by media as part of a drive by the authorities in Turkmenistan to protect its citizens from alcohol abuse and cigarette smoke but, in reality, it is probably more closely linked to a new tax to be imposed from next April.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The day after winning a case against the Georgian government for keeping him in pre-trial detention for 14 months, Gigi Ugulava was found guilty of misspending public funds when he was the mayor of Tbilisi. He was jailed for 4-1⁄2 years. Separately, a judge acquitted Ugulava of money laundering.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s parliament, a rubber-stamping chamber for President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, passed a law which will impose more tax on tobacco and alcohol. Turkmenistan has been looking to raise more tax during the current economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)