The appeal to the Ministry of Finance from the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ against what it claimed was an unjust tax demand for 110,000 US dollars was rejected on 15 August. "The taxes are simply a means of crushing the church," senior pastor Vasili Kuzin told Forum 18 News Service. Kyrgyzstan's tax code exempts charitable bodies from tax, while the religion law prescribes taxes only on religious organisations' business activities. "It is true that the activity of religious organisations is not subject to taxation, and if the situation is indeed as you say, then the tax inspectorate is breaking the law," Natalya Shadrova of the Committee for Religious Affairs told Forum 18
Members of the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ have
complained that a massive tax bill presented to the Church violates Kyrgyzstan's
constitution and the country's religion law. "The taxes are simply a means
of crushing the church," Vasili Kuzin, senior pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ, told
Forum 18 News Service from the capital Bishkek on 20 August. "If we do not
pay 110,000 US dollars the authorities intend to take the church building from
us in place of the money and close down the church!" A senior official of
the government's Committee for Religious Affairs told Forum 18 that Church
members should come to them to resolve the issue.
The tax inspectorate in Bishkek's Oktyabr
district is demanding that the head office of the Church of Jesus Christ, which
is based there, should pay taxes along with penalties and fines for non-payment
of taxes totalling 4,822,839 sums (825,000 Norwegian kroner, 100,000 Euros or 110,000 US dollars), missionary
Alina Shvidko told Forum 18 on 20
August from Karakol in eastern Kyrgyzstan. She said
the Church had appealed to the Finance Ministry against the decision, but on 15
August it upheld the Oktyabr district tax
inspectorate's decision. "They don't want to give any explanations for
their decision," she added.
Shvidko argued that the tax inspectorate's decision
went not only against the constitution and the religion law, but also against
Article 112 of the Tax Code, which states: "Non-profit social organisations involved in charitable activity are free from
taxation". However, Article 20 of the religion law specifies that
"profits from industrial, economic or other income to businesses belonging
to religious organisations are subject to taxation in
accordance with laws of the Kyrgyz Republic".
But Shvidko insists that the Church has not been
engaged in economic activity and that the tax inspectorate is insisting that it
pay tax on members' donations.
"You need to understand that in Kyrgyzstan
laws are written for foreigners to read, while in fact the authorities have no
intention of acting on them!" Pastor Kuzin told
Forum 18.
"It is true that the activity of religious organisations
is not subject to taxation, and if the situation is indeed as you say, then the
tax inspectorate is breaking the law," Natalya Shadrova, deputy chair of the Committee for Religious
Affairs, told Forum 18 from Bishkek. She agreed that 110,000 US dollars is a
"huge sum of money" for Kyrgyzstan.
"Let the members of the Church of Jesus Christ appeal to us and we will
try to help them. We have already helped to resolve a dispute between the
Baptists and the tax inspectorate."
The Church of Jesus Christ claims to be one of the fastest growing Protestant
Churches in Kyrgyzstan,
with around 9,500 members and some 30 affiliate churches in various parts of
the country. Around 30 per cent of the church's members are ethnic Kyrgyz.
Pastor Kuzin believes that the high proportion of
ethnic Kyrgyz - who are historically Muslims - in the Church's membership is the main reason for the authorities'
opposition to the Church's activity.
At the end of June, nearly all the Church's members sent an open letter to
President Askar Akayev
vowing to seek asylum abroad if pressure on the Church was not ended. They
complained of "economic pressure" and the government's
use of agents "trying to destroy the church from within". Several of
the Church's local congregations have been denied registration and have been
ordered to close down.