“The priority is not reduction, but optimization of taxes” - Ministry of Finance

The issue of reducing the tax burden for individuals and legal entities of Uzbekistan is not yet considered. The priority is to further optimize tax concessions and create equal conditions for all entrepreneurs, first deputy Finance Minister Akhadbek Khaydarov told Gazeta.ru at a briefing last week.

According to him, optimization will apply to all types of taxes - income tax, value added tax and all resource taxes.

“There are some types of tax benefits that can lead to inequality. There are many entrepreneurs working in one sphere. But in the same sphere, one entrepreneur has some benefits, the second one does not have these benefits. What is the optimization for? First of all, to attract foreign investment, everyone should be on an equal footing,” he noted.

At the same time, the work will be carried out to optimize customs benefits for entrepreneurs. But the question of changing customs rates, including import duties, is also not being considered yet, the first deputy Minister of Finance said.

Akhadbek Khaydarov noted that among important issues, there are further improvement of tax administration, ensuring timely receipt of taxes, implementation of explanatory work for taxpayers, as well as institutional development of the State Tax Committee itself, in order to “turn it into a supervisory body, but a subsidiary for taxpayers”.

“The Ministry of Finance has developed a mission to further improve tax policy. One of the most important tasks is final revision of the new version of the Tax Code. The draft document will be ready by April 1 and be published for public comment,” Mr. Khaydarov said.

In addition, to fully assess all threats and risks to the state budget, it is planned to increase its “staffing”. If the state budget now includes the republican and local budgets, and consolidates state trust funds in its composition, it is expected that all funds attached to ministries, departments and other state organizations will be included in the budget, he said.

“In addition, there are loans from international financial institutions and expenses on them. For example, if the World Bank has allocated a loan to the Ministry of Health, it will be recommended to reflect these expenses in the budget. This will allow to increase budget transparency even more,” Akhadbek Khaydarov noted.

The first deputy minister also expressed his opinion on the effectiveness of tax reform: “It is too early to draw conclusions on the consequences of introducing tax policy. But results of the first two months show that we received incomes higher than expected. We think that following the results of the first quarter, we will learn more accurate figures.”