Since April 1, Uzbekistan has stopped accepting cash payments for alcohol and tobacco, fuel, expensive purchases, transport and housing, as well as for some government services. Central Bank Chairman Timur Ishmetov answered a question about the impact of this decision on the economy at a press conference on April 29.
“We have not seen any negative impact from the transition to cashless payments. We are publishing statistics on this. More than 90% of payments are made using cards that people have used before. About 1 million people a day make payments at gas stations. Of these, 900-920 thousand have not noticed any changes,” he said.
Ishmetov added that the regulator is working and will continue to work on infrastructure to address inconveniences for some people.
Earlier, the Central Bank provided data on the means of payment used at gas stations since April 1. According to it, for the period April 1-22, the average daily revenue at gas stations amounted to 113.1 billion soums. The average daily number of transactions reached 951,400.
According to the regulator, 92.9% of payments were made using cards that citizens already owned. 4.9% of payments were made with instant cards, and 2.2% with fuel cards.
It is worth noting that earlier Gazeta wrote that the introduction of mandatory cashless payments for certain operations raises questions in the public about the need to review legislation. In particular, current norms provide for the equality of cash and non-cash forms of payment.
For example, the Civil Code states: “The sum is a legal tender that must be accepted at face value. Payments are made in cash and in the form of non-cash payments.”
A similar norm is contained in the Law on the Central Bank: “Payments on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan are made in cash or in the form of non-cash payments.” At the same time, new restrictions effectively make non-cash payment mandatory for certain categories of goods and services.
From a legal standpoint, this may imply the need for clarification or additional regulation at the level of laws, since the norms of the Civil Code and the Law on the Central Bank have higher legal force compared to by-laws (decrees of the president and government).
Source: www.gazeta.uz