Property Amnesty Could Encourage Crooks

A new campaign to curb the shadow economy by allowing people to register undisclosed assets without being fined will have undoubted benefits, but NBCentralAsia experts note that the last such effort took place only four years ago and warn that if amnesties are offered too frequently, economic criminals will begin to think they enjoy impunity.



A bill designed to coax Tajiks into registering all their undisclosed assets was submitted for parliamentary review on March 12. The government drafted the legislation on the instructions of President Imomali Rahmonov, who used his annual address to parliament in April last year to warn that anyone who refuses to make their assets known will have them confiscated.



There has already been an amnesty, launched in 2003, although that was for capital rather than property. As a result of that process, 175 million US dollars emerged as legal cash in the economy, the equivalent of 15 per cent of gross domestic product.



The result of the 2003 campaign was seen by some as a great success, and Mubinjon Kaumov, a member of parliament from the governing People’s Democratic Party is a strong supporter of having a new amnesty.



“This measure will give everyone a chance to become law-abiding citizens and take part in the economic process,” he told NBCentralAsia. “I think it is a positive measure that will make society more democratic.”



Shodee Shabdolov, the head of the Communist Party, also voiced support for the plan, saying, “There are people who have accumulated capital and property by lawful means but are frightened to disclose it in case it’s taken away from them. It makes sense to adopt this law for people of this sort.”



However, Shabdolov warned that too-frequent campaigns of this kind could have the reverse effect, “If it happens too often, corrupt people will work to the principle of stealing first, then legalising everything later. It’ll be robbery followed by amnesty.”



Muhiddin Kabiri, head of the Islamic Rebirth Party, is similarly concerned that the system will be abused.



“This legalisation process should not be repeated every five to ten years. People should not be given a chance to get rich by criminal means at the expense of others, then allowed to register their assets a few years later,” he said.



Kabiri recommended that the proposed amnesty should take in as many people as possible and make all property obtained by illicit means part of the legal economy.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)