Mandatory labeling of products postponed for one year

At the end of November 2018, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on the phased implementation of mandatory labeling of goods in Uzbekistan.

A list of the first 54 products to be labeled as of August 1, 2019 had been approved. Accordingly, if there was no labeling, then the sale of these goods would be prohibited.

The labeling was planned to be entrusted to a single service provider, which the National Agency for Project Management (NAPM) was to choose before January 1, 2019. It was planned to conclude an agreement with it for a period of five to ten years.

At the beginning of December 2018, the material of the Information-Analytical Multimedia Center at the Prosecutor General’s Office was released, which explained in detail why labeling is being introduced and how it will allow to receive millions of additional profit to the budget.

In mid-December 2018, NAPM announced the start of the collection of commercial offers. A detailed technical task was published on the site, including requirements for the company, labeling technology and finance.

In April 2019, it was reported that a contract for the provision of services for mandatory labeling of goods had not yet been concluded, but based on considering the results of the proposals received, the Swiss company SICPA was selected.

After that, no info has been received on the topic of labeling. 

According to the NAPM press service, a presidential decree was issued on July 10, 2019, which approves the Roadmap for improving tax administration.

Paragraph 8 of this Roadmap introduces a unified system of labeling for certain goods and creation of an electronic database of product accounting by tax authorities from August 1, 2020. 

“The main goals of introducing the labeling system are to prevent illegal importation into the republic, production and sale of certain types of goods, ensure their effective accounting, as well as increase the collection of taxes and other obligatory payments, which is inextricably linked to issues of increasing the efficiency of tax administration,” the NAPM reminded.

In this regard, the introduction of a unified system of identification marking is postponed for one year, and the State Tax Committee will become the main body responsible for its implementation.