If you bring a mobile phone or tablet into Tajikistan, the law requires you to register the device with the government.
And the mandatory registration fee you pay will ultimately line the pockets of a private company linked to associates of the president's son, an investigation by RFE/RL's Tajik Service has found.
Since October 2023, the Central Asian country has required that each mobile device brought into the country from abroad must have its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) -- a 15-digit number unique to each device -- registered within 30 days.
The government of authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon claims the regulation is aimed at boosting security and preventing the import of stolen phones.
But it has also created a cash cow for the private firm that was granted exclusive rights to run the IMEI registration process and whose name was kept secret for more than two years after an opaque tender process.
Corporate documents and other open-source records reviewed by RFE/RL show that the ultimate beneficiary of this agreement is a Tajik conglomerate called Avesto Group.
Like numerous other lucrative businesses in the country, Avesto Group has connections to Tajikistan's ruling family, although its ties are not immediately obvious or easy to detect.
The company's general director, Muhammad Mirzo, is a former deputy chairman of Tajikistan's Olympic Committee whose brother, Khurshed Mirzo, is a close associate of Rahmon's influential eldest son, Rustam Emomali.
Rustam Emomali, widely seen as his father's likely successor, serves as Dushanbe's mayor and chairman of the upper house of parliament. He is also head of the Tajik Football Federation, where Khurshed Mirzo serves as his first vice president.
Avesto Group benefits from the mandatory IMEI registration through two of its subsidiaries: Net Solutions, the Dushanbe-based technology company that was awarded the tender to run the registration process; and Dushanbe City Bank, a lender to which the registration fees are paid.
While neither Avesto nor its subsidiaries have publicly disclosed financial details related to IMEI registration, public statements by the government suggest they handled fees totaling over $2 million in the first nine months after the registration requirement came into force.
The fee for IMEI registration in Tajikistan is 50 somoni, or around $4.5, per device. In August, Deputy State Customs Committee Head Azim Tursunzoda said more than 757,000 mobile phones and tablets were imported to Tajikistan from October 2023 to June 2024. Over 525,000 were subject to taxes and registration fees, the official said.
The registration fees based on the official's figures total over 26.3 million somoni (around $2.4 million) in the eight-month period after the rule came into force. Tursunzoda also said the state received more than $11 million in customs duties on these devices during that period.
Avesto Group, Net Solutions, and Dushanbe City Bank did not respond to written requests for comment about their role in IMEI registration in Tajikistan or how they have benefited financially from the arrangement.
Incorporated in 2016, Avesto Group currently owns an array of firms and business projects, including flour and meat production, industrial explosives, manufacturing, banking, and mining.
While Avesto Group's general director, Muhammad Mirzo, has clear links to Tajikistan's ruling elite, including through his brother Khurshed, government tax records list the conglomerate's formal lone shareholder as a man named Faizali Habibov.
RFE/RL could not find any other company for which Habibov was the listed founder.
Tax, Customs Duty, Registration Fee
In March 2020, the Tajik government first ordered the IMEI registration of all mobile phones and tablets that enter the country, with unregistered devices automatically suspended after 30 days. The process had been carried out by mobile phone service providers free of charge.
Officials at the State Communications Service first announced in February 2021 that a "private company" had been selected to operate the IMEI registration. But the officials declined to name the company despite repeated media inquiries.
Only two years later, in April 2023, did the government agency reveal that Net Solutions had been awarded the contract.
Tajik State Tax Committee records and other documents reviewed by RFE/RL show that Net Solutions was founded by Avesto Group in 2016 and that the company has used several different names, including Avesto Internet, Net Solutions, and Nets.
Avesto Group refers to the company as an Internet provider called Nets and links to its website. The listed domain owner of the website is Net Solutions.
RFE/RL has not been able to obtain documents indicating the ownership of Nets, but the website shows that the company is connected to Avesto Group.
"Net Solutions is a domestic private company. We announced a tender among private companies and Net Solutions met our criteria [to win the bid]," Ilhomjon Atoev, the former deputy head of the State Communications Service, said on February 1.
Atoev did not mention the names of the company's founders and owners, and there is no record of a public competitive tender for the contract.
Neither the State Communications Service nor Net Solutions responded to requests for comment on what, if any, other companies had submitted a bid for the contract.
Sharoffiddin Gadoev, the Europe-based head of the opposition Reform and Development Movement, told RFE/RL that if the IMEI-registration process was motivated by security, the fees should be transferred to the state budget.
"Its main purpose is to make money," Gadoev said of the government deal with Net Solutions.
A September 2021 contract signed between Net Solutions and the Technology University of Tajikistan lists the Avesto subsidiary's general manager as Bakhtovar Abdusattorov. The company's current general manager is a man named Firdavs Masumov.
Open-source data shows that prior to joining Net Solutions, Masumov worked as a trade manager of Zet Mobile, a company linked to Hasan Asadullozoda, an influential brother-in-law of Rahmon.
The Internet services industry in Tajikistan is monopolized by the State Communications Service, whose head, Beg Sabur, is the father-in-law of one of Rahmon's daughters.
Amon Asror, an independent Tajik financial affairs expert, described Net Solutions' successful bid to land the lucrative contract as illustrative of how government contracts are awarded in Tajikistan.
"There are some newly established companies that the public has never heard of. But those who conduct tenders already know who is behind the companies,” Asror told RFE/RL.
"Companies that are linked to powerful people are often given business deals that don't require too much investment but yield a guaranteed stable income,” added the Europe-based expert.
Wedding Guest
Footage from the 2013 wedding banquet of Rahmon's son, Rustam Emomali, highlights the proximity to power that the family of Avesto Group's general director, Muhammad Mirzo, enjoys.
The footage aired by the private K+ television channel shows Muhammad Mirzo's brother Khurshed dancing and celebrating at an event attended only by the Rahmon family, their close circle of friends, and senior government officials.
A January report by the independent Tajik news agency Asia Plus described Khurshed Mirzo as an "important member of Rustam Emomali's team.”
The same month, Khurshed Mirzo was appointed head of the country's newly established Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies.
Exceptional Right
The IMEI registration is not the only profitable project that the Tajik government has awarded to Net Solutions and Dushanbe City Bank.
The two subsidiaries of Avesto Group have also landed deals to install cameras to register traffic violations on Dushanbe roads, build parking lots, and operate charging stations for electric vehicles.
According to the contracts, Avesto Group is set to invest between up to $10 million to implement the three projects.
Documents obtained by RFE/RL indicate that the state budget receives only half of the penalty fees collected from traffic violation cases. The other half goes to the Avesto Group subsidiaries.
Dushanbe streets already had traffic-control cameras installed in 2013 under the so-called Safe City project. The fines collected under that system went to the state budget. In 2017 alone, the state received about $3 million in traffic penalty fees.
Unlike Safe City, Avesto Group's equipment includes many mobile speed cameras. Shortly after the system was activated in June 2024, the Tajik government granted Net Solutions and Dushanbe City Bank a tax exemption on 50 percent of their revenue for five years.
The Tajik government has also granted Avesto Group an exceptional right to transfer its net income to offshore accounts.
