On January 5, Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree on improving the water resources management system. The Recitals of the document says that its purpose was to improve the culture of water use and convey to the public that water is not for free.
According to the document, from 2024, the Ministry of Water Resources, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, shall annually approve water intake limits for irrigating agricultural crops by provinces based on the water level of sources by March 25 for the growing season and by September 25 for the autumn-winter period.
The Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture of Karakalpakstan, basin departments of irrigation systems and territorial departments of agriculture annually, within the limits approved for the region, develop water intake limits for irrigating crops in the context of end users by April 1 - for the growing season and by October 1 - for the autumn-winter period.
The ceilings that they propose will be approved by the district councils of people's deputies.
While, from 2024, the water tax base for agricultural producers who did not keep track of the volume of water consumed shall be calculated with a doubling in relation to the limits approved by the councils of people’s deputies.
From 2025, when introducing water-saving irrigation technologies and determining the volume of water intake for irrigation based on water measuring instruments, a reduction factor of 0.5 will be applied to the water tax rate. If one of the above is implemented, a reduction factor of 0.7 is applied to the water tax rate.
When determining the volume of water intake for fish farming based on water measuring instruments, a reduction factor of 0.7 is also applied to the water tax rate.
If water-saving technologies have not been introduced and the volume of water intake for irrigation is not established based on water measuring instruments, an increasing factor of 1.5 is applied to the water tax rate.
To introduce water-saving technologies, agricultural producers will begin to be issued loans for 5 years with a grace period of 2 years at a rate of 14% per annum from 2024. At the same time, in Karakalpakstan and the Khorezm province, farmers will pay only 10% per annum, and the remaining 4% will be covered by the state from the budget. The issuance of loans will be organized through the suvkredit.uz platform.
State subsidies to reimburse part of the costs of water-saving technologies will be provided to agricultural producers in the same year in which the technologies were introduced in full. Previously, there was a procedure according to which only 50% of the subsidy amount could be received in the same year, and the rest was paid the following year.
