Financial sanctions will be applied from 1 September against companies for anticompetitive actions. This is provided for by the presidential decree on improving the business environment of April 8.

The procedure for imposing financial sanctions should be spelled out in the amended Competition Law in a new edition, which the Cabinet of Ministers was instructed to submit to the Legislative Chamber of Parliament within a month. All collected financial sanctions will be directed to the state budget.

The Decree also provides that financial sanctions will be applied to economic entities that have committed the following anti-competitive actions:

• agreements (concerted actions) and coordination of economic activities that led to the restriction of competition in the commodity and financial markets;
• abuse of a dominant (monopoly) position in the commodity and financial markets and қгзукшўк negotiating power, unreasonable overpricing of products of social and strategic importance, as well as unfair competition;
• violations of competition law in the event of a merger, acquisition, as well as the conclusion of agreements on the acquisition of shares (stakes) in the authorized fund (authorized capital) of economic entities;
• committing anti-competitive actions at public auctions and violating antitrust requirements.

The document instructs to establish responsibility for other types of anti-competitive actions.

The Decree determines that legal entities or businesses or a group of persons (with the exception of subjects of natural monopolies, participants in public procurement and exchange trading, as well as economic entities, the price of whose products is regulated by the state), the proceeds from the sale of goods (services) of which for the last calendar year does not exceed 10,000 of the base settlement value, are not recognized as occupying a dominant position in the commodity or financial market, and antimonopoly measures shall not be applied to them.

The Cabinet of Ministers was instructed to submit a draft bill to the Legislative Chamber within two months, providing for harsher administrative responsibility from September 1 for:

• illegal restriction by public authorities and administration of free movement and sale of raw materials, goods and services;
• making decisions restricting competition by state unitary enterprises or institutions, associations of legal entities empowered to license, register, accredit and issue permits;
• failure to submit the necessary documents and data at the request of the antimonopoly authority, as well as the submission of false or inaccurate information.

Measures have been outlined to eliminate monopolies “through the broad involvement of the private sector and the abolition of exclusive rights” (list not yet available).

The decree also envisaged to equalize competitive conditions for business entities: from May 1, tax and customs benefits applicable to a limited number of entities and instructed to extend to all entities in a number of industries (list not yet available).

The decree contains a strict instruction from July 1 to provide customs duty waivers solely on the basis of the regulations of Uzbekistan. A phased abolition of certain taxes and customs privileges is also planned (the list has not yet been published).

The document has established the abolition of tax and customs benefits for goods (services) purchased at the expense of loans and credits from international financial institutions and foreign government financial organizations under international agreements of Uzbekistan, approved before July 1, 2020, refinanced or refinanced through commercial banks of the country. This applies to goods (services) purchased on the basis of newly concluded agreements (regardless of the form and method of registration) between commercial banks and business entities.

From January 1, 2023, the Competition Development Index will be introduced with the annual submission of information by the Antimonopoly Committee to the Senate.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, together with the Antimonopoly Committee, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice, was instructed to submit a draft resolution within two months to accelerate the wide involvement of the private sector in the provision of public services and the implementation of public functions.