In an appeal to his fellow residents, Akrom Misirov, the chairman of the Yakkaterak mahalla in the Kizirik district of the Surkhandarya region, spoke about the pressure mahalla chairmen are facing due to tax arrears.
According to the chairman, because there are citizens in the mahalla who have not paid their taxes, he and other officials are summoned to the district center for meetings every day.
“Because of the citizens in our mahalla who have not paid their taxes, look, we are forced to go to the district center every day, morning and evening,” says Akrom Misirov.
He noted that some citizens have very small tax debts—around one or two hundred thousand soms. Despite this, even these debts are affecting the daily work of the mahalla chairman.
“And what hurts the most is that there are also those who have one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand soms left unpaid by these citizens who haven't paid taxes,” says the mahalla chairman.
According to the chairman, compulsory measures may be applied in some cases during the debt collection process. He stated that he faces difficulties working with the population in order to avoid resorting to such measures.
“Then, for citizens who haven't paid more taxes, we are capable of stamping and forcibly transferring them to lease. People are suffering just to avoid doing this thing,” he says.
It is clearly noticeable in the chairman's appeal that he is personally tired of this process.
“To be honest, we are fed up with being scolded every day,” says Akrom Misirov.
According to him, tomorrow he will be forced to provide information to the relevant department about citizens who have a tax debt of more than one million soms.
“Now tomorrow we have no choice, we will write down all the tax debtors exceeding one million to the department, we have no other choice, to be frank,” says the mahalla chairman.
He also mentioned that he has to go to the khokimiyat at 06:30 in the morning to attend the meetings.
“Being scolded like this every day, going to the khokimiyat at half past six in the morning has also become exhausting,” he says.
These words of the mahalla chairman raise a question: To what extent is the mahalla chairman responsible for a citizen fulfilling their tax obligations?
While calculating and collecting tax arrears is the duty of authorized bodies, is there a legal basis for the practice of making the mahalla chairman report every day and summoning him to the district center? The response of responsible agencies to this question is important.
