Local manufacturers demand equal VAT privileges to compete with foreign importers

The administrative shift comes in response to ongoing feedback from the business sector. International and domestic investors funding large-scale national infrastructure projects frequently request wholesale exemptions on VAT for imported building and raw materials to lower overall capital expenditures. This practice, however, leaves home-grown suppliers at a severe disadvantage. Local manufacturing firms have voiced their readiness to compete robustly with foreign imports, provided the government grants them identical VAT privileges. To resolve this imbalance, state authorities have been ordered to draft a legislative resolution establishing a completely uniform fiscal framework for both imported and domestically produced materials.

This policy adjustment coincides with a wider fiscal crisis affecting the domestic industrial base. A targeted financial review revealed that 457 local manufacturing enterprises have accumulated UZS 3,500,000,000,000 in overdue loan debts. Government analysts attribute this heavy debt burden to unsustainably high manufacturing prime costs and a failure to adapt to changing market demands, leaving many local companies unable to compete with more agile foreign alternatives.

In response, sector officials have been instructed to conduct on-site evaluations at every single indebted factory to design customized financial recovery and corporate restructuring programs. To finance these turnaround strategies, a dedicated financial facility worth $50,000,000 is being allocated. These resources will be specifically funneled into modernizing production lines, optimizing supply chains to reduce production costs, and retooling factories to manufacture high-demand products.

The structural push to equalize competitive conditions across the industrial market follows recently published financial data regarding corporate tax benefits. According to fiscal reports, Uzbekistan GTL LLC secured the top position as the single largest corporate recipient of state tax incentives during the previous calendar year.