Uzbekistan, Tashkent, April 8 / Trend D.Azizov /
The total volume of leasing operations in Uzbekistan in 2012 increased by 22 per cent to 590.6 billion soum and the volume of the leasing market by 3.4 per cent to 1.297 trillion soum compared to 2011, according to an overview of the leasing market prepared by the Uzbek information and credit rating agency SAIPRO on Monday.
According to the review, despite the growing volume of leasing operations, their share in the GDP of the country in recent years has decreased to 0.6 per cent, whilst the share of leasing portfolio to GDP fell to 1.3 per cent which is due to the faster pace of economic development in general.
The share of leasing transactions in investments in fixed assets in 2012 remained at the level of the previous year of 2.7 per cent.
In total, Uzbek lessors signed over 7000 transactions last year, an increase of 11.8 per cent.
The main share in the structure of leased property in accordance with the 2012 results is occupied by agricultural equipment (33.1 per cent versus 30.9 per cent a year earlier).
The share of freight transport in the overall structure of leased equipment increased from 15 per cent in 2011 to 21.8 per cent in 2012. The most popular types of leasing in the past year also included real estate - 13.1 per cent, equipment for the wood industry - 7.6 per cent, construction equipment - 4.3 per cent, equipment for the production of food products - 3.1 per cent, medical equipment - 2, 2 per cent and equipment for light industry - two per cent.
The leasing market had 99 lessors operating in 2012, including 26 commercial banks. In the volume of leasing transactions, the share of leasing companies amounted to 64.6 per cent (67.1 per cent in the previous year) and of commercial banks - 35.4 per cent (32.9 per cent).
In 2012, Uzselhozmashlizing (167.7 billion soum), Uzavtopromlizing (55.3 billion soum), Uzmeliomashlizing (39.1 billion soum), Uzbek Leasing International (19.1 billion soum) and Stroylizing (12.7 billion soum) were the key players in the market in terms of leasing operations.
Among the most active commercial banks in the field of leasing were the State Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Asaka (104.6 billion soum), Joint-Stock Commercial Mortgage Banking (27.4 billion soum), Open Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Microcredit (21.2 billion soum), Turon Bank (8.1 billion soum) and Trust Bank - (7,5 billion soum).
Uzbekistan has abolished customs duties on the import of modern technological equipment on a lease. The lease payments are exempt from VAT and lessees from taxes on property transferred in the lease.
The official exchange rate on April 8 is 2044.27 soum /$ 1