According to Abbosbek Jo‘rayev, director of the Institute for Reducing the Shadow Economy and Fiscal Analysis under the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan, the work on regulating tax and customs benefits is ongoing. However, to make quality decisions, knowing the total volume of benefits is not enough. It is important to clearly distinguish which benefits are a measure of state support for certain industries and which are part of the basic structure of the tax system.
As of the end of 2025, the total volume of tax and customs benefits amounted to 178.2 trillion soums. Of this, 64% or 114.7 trillion soums came from VAT. In second place were customs duty benefits: 19.2% or 34.2 trillion soums. In third place were profit tax benefits: 8.9% or 15.8 trillion soums.
Jo‘rayev noted that canceling 178 trillion soums in benefits would not automatically bring the same amount of revenue to the budget. A significant part of what is called benefits is actually an element of the tax structure and cannot be considered direct budget losses. This is due to the dual nature of tax benefits: on the one hand, they stimulate the economy; on the other, they are a form of government spending through the tax system.
The institute has just begun a full assessment of tax expenditures. According to preliminary estimates, it will take about 3-4 months to determine the benchmark tax system, after which a more detailed analysis can be conducted to assess how much revenue would actually flow into the budget if certain categories of benefits were abolished.
An analysis of VAT benefits shows that about 76% of the declared benefits are actually related to the basic architecture of the tax system. For example, zero rate for export operations, international transportation, financial services, and insurance services in many cases are not tax benefits but are considered elements of the tax system.
The volume of VAT benefits for IT Park residents grew from 87 billion soums in 2019 to 3.6 trillion soums in 2025. The institute does not yet assess the effectiveness of these benefits but emphasizes the need for their separate analysis. In subsequent materials, the institute plans to present an approach to assessing the effectiveness of benefits and publish the results.
Source: www.gazeta.uz