Trade liberalization is going on.

Under the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures for further liberalization of trade and development of competition in the commodity markets” as of October 30, 2018 (hereinafter “Decree”), relevant measures have been undertaken to develop wholesale and exchange trade, develop retail networks, as well as the use of modern information technologies by business entities.
In particular, there have been undertaken the measures on abolishing the followings to be effective from January 1, 2019:

- licensing of of wholesale trade and specific order of taxation of trading companies. If to take into account the fact that in compliance with the Regulation “On procedure for wholesale and retail trade activities” (approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No.407 as of November 26, 2002), the sale of purchased goods through non-cash settlements intended for commercial use or for own purposes is recognized as wholesale trade. However, previously any sale of goods through non-cash payments used to be possible only under a license.
With the cancellation of the requirements to the amount of the charter capital of wholesale enterprises (PD No-5303 as of January 16, 2018) since February 1, 2018, the absence of any justified necessity for licensing this type of activity has become even more apparent.
As for the specific order of taxation of trade enterprises canceled by this Decree, this abolishment implies the cancellation of the advance collection of tax payments by banks (registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 2065 as of January 14, 2010).
- special procedure for accounting of receipts from the sale of certain types of excisable goods (transport vehicles, vegetable oil and others) and its use. This refers to the Regulations “On the accounting system of the production and sale of certain types of excisable goods” adopted as a temporary and being effective since 2004 (registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan No.1390 as of July 26, 2004).
- requirements for obtaining a permit for itinerant trade. Such a requirement is currently provided for by the Regulation approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 233 as of July 13, 2016;
- sanctions for overdue receivables arising at companies with a state share in the authorized capital of less than 50% in relations with their counterparties;
- requirements for 15% advance payment in the domestic market for transactions of companies with a state share of less than 50% (Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 1363 as of January 24, 1996);
- restrictions imposed on the export of certain types of goods according to the list in compliance with Appendix No.1 to the Decree;
- effective procedure for negotiating schedules for putting out products for exchange tenders with the introduction of a notification procedure for their approval with State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for assistance to privatized enterprises and development of competition (Provision “On the order of accounting he volumes of products put out for exchange tenders”, registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan No.2178 as of January 7, 2011);
-requirements to extend a financial consumer loan for purchasing only consumer goods (services) manufactured in the Republic of Uzbekistan from a manufacturer or selling company (Article 15 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Consumer Loan” Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan as of May 6, 2006.

In addition, since November 1, 2018, the Decree stipulates:

- changes in the procedure for the sale of highly liquid product types, raw and consumable materials have been established (Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No.3386 as of November 14, 2017), as well as in procedures of carrying out exchange activities in compliance with which:

commodity exchanges are provided with the right to create subsidiary economic entities for the organization of storage and logistics of products sold in the exchange, as well as development and implementation of information and communication technologies;
marketable types of products, raw and consumable materials which have been imported, can be sold without restrictions in the domestic market including in the exchange tenders at the discretion of their owners;
release to the sellers of marketable products, raw and consumable materials purchased in the exchange tenders is carried out strictly within the time required and in the order determined by the electronic systems of exchanges depending on the terms of payment for production;
taxation conditions provided for legal entities engaged in brokerage activities in the stock market are applied on the income of members of commodity exchanges subject to tax conditions.

- New procedure for the delivery and use of cash proceeds has been introduced. This newly introduced procedure envisages:

opportunity for economic entities with an average daily cash proceeds of over 20-fold minimum wage, to provide its daily delivery to the cash offices of banks through the collection service or independently;
opportunity for economic entities with an average daily cash proceeds of less than 20-fold minimum wage, to provide its daily delivery to the cash offices of banks through the collection service within during the periods determined or independently;
abolishing collection of cash proceeds exclusively through the collection services of the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the creation of opportunity to organize alternative collection services in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation.

Previously, the “threshold” amount which excess resulted in the obligation to provide daily delivery of cash proceeds through the Central Bank collection services constituted the amount of 1 minimum wage for all enterprises and organizations, and 20-fold minimum wage for small businesses and private businesses (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 548 as of December 11, 1997). Economic entities with daily cash proceeds of the amount specified below had the right of option: to deliver it through collection services or independently to the cash offices of banks.

- the right to make non-cash payments between legal entities and individual entrepreneurs with the use of corporate bank cards without concluding the sale and purchase agreement, with the issuance of an invoice. That is, currently when making such settlement transactions, the primary document is not only the Expenditures Statement and the original receipt of the terminal, but also the invoice in good faith.

In addition, the Decree enacts additional regulation of the implementation of foreign trade e-commerce. Previously, the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No.5349 as of February 19, 2018 has determined that since June 1, 2018, business entities have the right to export goods, works (services), except for goods determined by the Government, via electronic trading platforms on the Internet without entering into an export contract and withdrawal of the bank commission for the export of goods, works (services).

The adopted Decree complementary determines a limit on the amount of these transactions: only the export of goods and services through the world network Internet with payment through international payment systems in the amount of up to 5 thousand USD on one invoice does not require a written contract with buyers and is allowed for all legal entities and individuals. The information on such transactions is not entered into the Unified electronic information system of foreign trade transactions and clearance of cargo customs declaration for such transactions is carried out in accordance with the rules for rendering postal services, with conducting reporting in compliance with generally accepted international practice.

In addition to all above-stated changes for legal entities, the Decree provided an increase of the standards for goods to be exported by individuals outside the Republic of Uzbekistan without a customs declaration: from 3 thousand USD (as it was previously established by the Resolution of the President No. 3512 as of February 6, 2018) to 5 thousand USD.