President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan reviewed a presentation on measures to reduce the share of the shadow economy and improve the effectiveness of prosecutor oversight in this area.
In recent years, the country has carried out systematic work: special and territorial commissions were established, risk analysis systems were introduced in tax and customs authorities, legislative gaps were eliminated, and incentives for honest business were strengthened.
As a result, over the past two years, the share of the unobserved economy decreased from 35% to 23%, an additional 38 trillion soums were recovered into the budget, the number of officially employed people exceeded 8.5 million, and the average official salary approached 6.5 million soums.
However, the scale of the hidden sector remains high. According to statistical estimates, in the first quarter of this year, the volume of the unobserved economy amounted to 81.1 trillion soums in agriculture, 24.5 trillion soums in trade and services, 23.9 trillion soums in construction, and 6.7 trillion soums in industry.
The shadow economy reduces budget revenues, negatively affects the competitive environment, lowers social protection due to informal employment, and deprives consumers and businesses of access to state support mechanisms. By 2030, the goal is to halve the shadow economy, increase officially employed population to 14 million, and raise the share of non-cash payments to 75%.
The Prosecutor General's Office developed and launched in pilot mode an electronic platform called the "Shadow Economy Map" using artificial intelligence, which displays risks, potential budget losses, and sources of income.
The new system will monitor 22 main economic sectors, 85 areas, 14 regions, as well as 208 districts and cities. Specialists in taxation, customs, finance, statistics, and econometrics were involved in creating the platform, developing over 100 risk assessment criteria with individual coefficients. Databases from 16 ministries and agencies were integrated into the system for real-time data processing.
Based on platform analytics, sectors and regions will be automatically categorized as "green," "yellow," or "red." The program can automatically detect unlicensed work, concealment of turnover, jobs, and payroll, as well as understatement of profits.
During the presentation, it was proposed to transfer prosecutor oversight in this area to a digital format using the new platform's capabilities. This will allow targeted allocation of responsible agencies' resources and minimize human factors in inspections. If a problem is not resolved at the district or city level, it will be escalated to the regional level, and if necessary, to the national level. Mirziyoyev emphasized that key attention should be paid to digitalization, data exchange, and targeted oversight when reducing the shadow economy.
Responsible officials were instructed to integrate more than 70 information systems into the platform by October 1, ensure coverage of all regions, and fully launch the system by next year. The task also includes strengthening prosecutor oversight to create equal competition conditions and increase the accountability of officials.
Source: podrobno.uz