“823 billion soums of additional taxes were collected from entrepreneurs to fulfill the budget forecast” – Prosecutor General

On November 7, at an interdepartmental meeting on corruption, Prosecutor General Nigmatilla Yuldashev criticized the activities of some tax officials. He also said that the department responsible for state tax policy and budget revenues is not free from corruption.

“In particular, in the last two years, 31 tax officials have been prosecuted for abuse of power. For example, the head of the Dangara District State Tax Inspectorate, Turgunbayev, recruited Muminov and Karimov, who had been fired from the tax authorities for corruption, and set up a criminal group engaged in the encashment of funds. The organized group opened 22 fake companies, which smuggled 268 billion soums, evaded 19 billion soums in taxes, and legalized 200 million soums in criminal proceeds. Turgunbayev and 14 of his accomplices are currently being prosecuted,” the Prosecutor General said.

According to Nigmatilla Yuldashev, the Fergana city tax inspectorate has come up with a “unique” way to fulfill the budget revenue plan and embezzle budget funds.

“They entered false information into the tax base accounts of 52 taxpayers noting that a total of 3.5 billion soums had been paid in taxes, more than it should have been. They then also submitted false conclusions to the finance department on the pretext of returning the artificially generated overpayments to their owners. Thus, they looted 1.2 billion soums through companies familiar to them,” he said.

It was noted that in the past period, in 1,781 cases, additional funds worth 24 billion soums were not included in the tax base. In particular, certain facilities that could have been taxed for 1.7 billion soums in the Bukhara region, 2.6 billion soums in the Fergana region, 3.9 billion soums in the city of Tashkent, 4.2 billion soums in Samarkand and 11.9 billion soums in Jizzakh were not registered.

“Everyone knows why tax officers are not interested in expanding the tax base at all by registering a certain facility. Local officials neither analyze nor study the reasons thoroughly. They are deep asleep. And the burden falls on entrepreneurs. For example, 823 billion soums of overpayments were collected from about 18,000 entrepreneurs this year to fulfill the budget forecast,” the Prosecutor General said.