Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan will strengthen punishment and increase fines for illegal acquisition or sale of foreign currency, Uzbek media reported referring to the draft law “On Amendments to Article 177 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Article 170 of the Administrative Liability Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.
The bill was considered by members of the lower house of parliament during the plenary session.
“Despite ongoing reforms aimed at introducing market mechanisms for currency regulation, the facts of illegal acquisition and sale of foreign currency in the country are still quite regular. For example, studies conducted by the prosecution authorities show the facts of a sharp increase of such crimes. In the first nine months of this year, 2,069 facts of illegal circulation of foreign currency were revealed (1,665 in the same period of 2017),” the lower house of parliament noted.
According to the MPs, the adoption of this law will enhance the effectiveness of crime prevention in this sphere, increase the size of foreign exchange purchases from the population, reduce the shadow economy and eliminate the channels of uncontrolled outflow of foreign currency.
In September 2017, Uzbekistan launched liberalization of monetary policy. In particular, individuals have received the right to sell currency in exchange offices since Sept. 5.
Purchase of currency is carried out in the conversion departments of commercial banks with crediting it to international payment cards that can be used abroad without any restrictions. The population can also convert soums into dollars using special mobile applications.
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