Friday, 19, April, 2024
Friday, 19, April, 2024
In Uzbekistan, it is planned to lift the restriction on the sale of government securities to individuals in the coming years. This was announced at the plenary session of the Senate on August 4 by Deputy Finance Minister Odilbek Isoqov.
Banks began to charge a fee for cash withdrawal from international bank cards through cash desks and ATMs. Banks explain this "temporary" practice by the fact that some "speculators" began to use international bank cards to withdraw cash. At the same time, there is no talk of Uzbeks who will withdraw currency from their local foreign currency cards. These measures again suggest that the best method of keeping money is not banks, but cash "under the pillow."
Sberbank launched free money remittances in rubles to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It will be possible to transfer money up to 50,000 rubles a day without commission to 5 bank’s cards in Uzbekistan through Sberbank app. After this, it is said that the pressure of the ruble against the soum may increase even more.
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has begun to review the strategy for managing gold and foreign exchange reserves, announced at a press conference on July 21 the governor of the Central Bank Mamarizo Nurmuratov.
Uzbekneftegaz may reschedule the public offering of shares, which was scheduled until 2024, to a later date, when the situation on the financial markets stabilizes, the company said.
Mamarizo Nurmuratov, chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, confirmed at a press conference on July 21 that it is now difficult for the country's commercial banks to import foreign currency in cash on their own.
The Central Bank has postponed the achievement of a permanent inflation target of 5% to the end of 2024, although this target was originally planned to be achieved in 2023. This was stated at a press conference on July 21 by the chair of the Central Bank Mamarizo Nurmuratov.
The Board of the Central Bank at the meeting today decided to reduce the interest rate by 1 percentage point to 15% per annum, the bank said.
Uzbeks have withdrawn more cash from their bank accounts and cards, the Central Bank said in its half-year report on Tuesday. In January-June, the volume of bank cash turnover topped 316.3 trillion soums, which is by 36.4% more to the same period in 2021.
To spur private sector growth and support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including those owned by women, IFC signed a new loan with Hamkorbank, Uzbekistan’s largest private lender.
The Electricity Sector Transformation and Resilient Transmission Project was officially launched today in Tashkent. It will help improve the performance of the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan JSC (NEGU) to ensure reliable energy supplies to millions of households and businesses across the country.
The Senate approved the design of a new 1,000 soum coin, along with a 200,000 soum banknote. The design of the coin has not yet been unveiled, with the Central Bank adding that coin would be put into circulation before year-end.
On July 13-14, 2022, the Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank organized a high-level meeting involving senior government officials from the five countries of Central Asia responsible for the human, animal, wildlife and environmental health, and agricultural sectors. They discussed ways to strengthen the regional collaboration in protecting food systems and preventing future pandemics, animal and human disease outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance.
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan announced the release into circulation of new samples of banknotes with a face value of 200 thousand soums from July 15.
The Senate at the plenary session on Friday approved the Tax Consulting Activities Bill, which was developed in place of the 2006 Tax Consulting Law, the Senate reported.
The Bill is with supplemented with a provision that tax consulting activities must be independent of the influence of state bodies and other organizations and officials.
According to the principle of independence, tax consultants may refuse to provide tax consulting services if there are circumstances that impede the independence of their activities.
The Bill contains a specified list of tax consulting services:
The Ministry of Finance (formerly the Cabinet of Ministers) is proposed as the authorized state body in the field of tax consulting.
The authority to develop and coordinate activities in the field of tax consulting are to be transferred to the Chamber of Tax Consultants, which is a public organization. In particular, such basic functions of the Ministry of Finance as issuing, reissuing, terminating the tax consultant's certificate, raising the professional level of tax consultants and others are also proposed to be transferred to it.
The law emphasizes that the members of the chamber retain their independence in carrying out their activities.
An Expert Council of Tax Advisers is to be established under the Chamber of Tax Advisers. It considers and issues opinions on systematically arising tax disputes between taxpayers and regulatory authorities, an expert assessment of proposals for amendments to tax legislation, and also develops proposals for its improvement.
The conclusions of the expert council on tax disputes are to be accepted for consideration by the regulatory authorities.
The U.S. Treasury has identified Uzbekistan as transshipment point through which restricted or controlled exports reach Russia and Belarus.
Private Savdogar Bank has changed its name to Garant Bank. The decision was approved at the June 17 shareholders meeting, the Unified Portal of Corporate Information said.
The purchase deal of a 100% stake in Uzagroexportbank by the Russian Sovcombank from the State Assets Management Agency of Uzbekistan (SAMA) has been practically cancelled, stated the first deputy chairman of Sovcombank Sergey Khotimsky, Interfax reported.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a $143 million concessional credit for Uzbekistan. This financing will support a project aimed at improving the energy efficiency of public buildings and enhancing the institutional and regulatory framework in the buildings sector for attracting clean energy investments.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the Republic of Uzbekistan. Despite shocks from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Uzbekistan's economy has shown resilience. The pandemic caused a sharp slowdown in 2020, particularly in trade, tourism, and transportation. Nonetheless, real growth remained positive at 1.9 percent. Year-end inflation fell to 11 percent.