Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 30
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan on Sept. 30 has made a statement regarding restrictions on the conversion of currency on import operations, Trend reports citing the bank.
Recently, publications have been circulating in the media regarding the introduction of restrictions on currency conversion for import operations.
According to the press service of the Central Bank, since September 2017, all business entities have been granted the right to freely purchase foreign currency on domestic foreign exchange market for current international operations without any restrictions. Since the introduction of free conversion practice, the volume of foreign exchange transactions on the purchase and sale of foreign currency has grown several times.
According to the bank, the average monthly volume of transactions for the sale of foreign currency to business entities in January-September of the current year increased by almost 3 times compared to 2017, and the purchase of foreign currency by more than 2 times. The number of business entities that acquired foreign currency in August amounted to 7,600 compared to 4,100 in 2018 and 340 in 2017.
Moreover, along with liberalization and transparency of the economy, appropriate measures are being taken to increase the efficiency of economic entities with state participation and the rational use of state resources in favor of supporting development of domestic production.
“However, in practice, in the framework of public procurement, there are cases of using state resources for the import of goods, the production of which (both in quality and price) is established in the country, their prices are too high, as well as without proper marketing research, the import is unusual and not required to the activity of products, which in consequence leads to the outflow and freezing of state funds,” the Central Bank said.
In order to prevent the aforementioned cases, the government takes public procurement, investment and other programs to take measures regarding the examination of import contracts of individual state-owned companies with attention to the consistency of prices reflected in production and investment projects, as well as availability of goods with similar quality and price in the domestic market.
The bank said that the measures taken should not be considered in any way as restrictive measures in the field of monetary policy, since they are taken solely in relation to public procurement, investment and other socio-economic development programs, as well as state-owned enterprises, and thus are one of the mechanisms that contribute to supporting the development of the domestic economy and the balance of its individual segments.
The Central Bank emphasized that all commercial banks sell foreign currency to business entities for the import of goods (services) without any restrictions.
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