Uzbekistan, Tashkent, November 19/ Trend, D. Azizov /
Oliy Majlis - the Lower House of the Parliament of Uzbekistan - on Friday adopted in the first reading the state budget-2012 with the deficit equivalent to one percent of the forecasted GDP, the Parliament's Press Service reported.
The state budget draft was preliminarily examined at the Lower House's committees and factions of political parties, with the participation of representatives of respective ministries and bodies and public organizations, the report reads.
The state budget parameters were drafted with respect to the 2012 forecasted growth of GDP by 8.2 percent, industrial output by 8.6 percent, agricultural production by 5.8 percent, capital investments by 9.3 percent, and export of goods and services by 14.5 percent.
As forecasted, state budget revenues and expenditures will be 20 trillion and 393.9 billion som (21.1 percent of GDP) and 21 trillion and 360.4 billion som (22.1 percent of GDP) with the budget deficit of around 966.5 billion som.
The rate of common tax - paid instead of the combination of taxes by small firms and enterprises - is expected to decrease from 6 percent to 5 percent while fixed tax rate for individual entrepreneurs specialized in the provision of services will see almost a double decrease.
The minimum rate of physical persons' income tax is likely to decrease from 10 percent to 9 percent. At the same time, it is suggested defining first rank, as a basic size, below which an employer can not pay wages to employees.
For the reasons of optimization and simplification of the order of taxation, the rate of compulsory tax paid to the Road Fund of Uzbekistan will be equivalent to 1.4 percent for enterprises specialized in all kinds of operation. The rates of compulsory tax currently vary from 1 percent to 2.5 percent depending on kind of operation.
Implementation of these and other stimulating measures set up in the tax policy concept will allow cutting tax burden on the economy by 0.7 percent next year, the report said.
The bigger part of expenditures - 58.6 percent versus 58.5 percent in the previous year - are planned for the social sphere, including healthcare, education, culture and sports, and social security.
Healthcare-related expenditures will be equivalent to 2.9 percent of GDP (versus 2.8 percent in 2010) and assume an increase of food and medicinal expenditures for healthcare facilities by 1.15 times.
Funds equivalent to 2 percent of GDP-2012 will be assigned as payments of public allowances, financial assistance, and compensations.
Expenditures relating to education will be equivalent to 7.5 percent of GDP against 7.3 percent in 2011.
Centralized investments to be assigned from the state budget will be equivalent to 1.35 percent of GDP.
State budget deficit is likely to be covered at the price of unspent state budget assets, as of the early 2012, and other non-inflationary sources.
State budget-2012 should be adopted finally at a meeting of the Senate, the Upper House of the Parliament of Uzbekistan, in the early December.
State budget-2011 was adopted by the Parliament of Uzbekistan in the early December 2010 with the deficit equivalent to one percent of GDP, revenues of 16 trillion and 178.6 billion som (20.9 percent of GDP) and expenditures of 16 trillion and 991.1 billion som (21.9 percent of GDP).
The official exchange rate on November 19 is 1,772.98 som/$1.