President Shavkat Mirziyoyev approved amendments to the Consumer Loan Law, which now allow provision of consumer loans for imported goods with immediate effect. The Legislative Chamber passed the amendments on January 17, and the Senate on March 2.
Prior to this, consumer loans in Uzbekistan were provided only for only locally produced cars, household appliances, goods and services. Now it is allowed to allocate a loan for goods and services not produced in Uzbekistan.
The amendments now also abolish the procedure for advance notice in writing of a manufacturing enterprise or organization selling consumer goods (works, services) about a consumer receiving a financial consumer loan.
If, before individuals could not get a consumer loan to buy a car on the secondary market from other citizens, so they were forced to include a legal entity in the transaction as a third party that took a commission for their services.
Now, a financial consumer loan is provided by transferring money by a bank or other credit organization to the bank account of a manufacturer or entity (legal entity and individual) selling consumer goods (services).
MP Doniyor Ganiev previously explained the importance of these amendments. “On the one hand, this illogical restriction caused inconvenience to the public of the country, limiting the choice, and on the other hand, supporting local monopolies under the motto of“ localization”, and served to increase prices for goods and services and, thereby, to form a non-competitive environment,” he noted. .
Back in October 2018, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree that ordered the abolition of the requirement to provide a consumer loan for the purchase of only locally produced goods from January 1, 2019.
In June 2020, the Cabinet also decided to lift this requirement by October 2021.
In July 2020, the Antimonopoly Committee proposed to provide consumer loans for foreign-made goods, and the loan itself - in cash and in foreign currency. But those amendments after public discussion were never adopted.
Public discussion of the draft amendments was completed in September 2022.
