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Economic relations are one of the important elements of civil society. They cannot appear and develop by themselves, but are formed under the influence of the state and society. If society has an influence on the economy through social norms, the state ensures its development based on the laws it adopts, writes Furqat Yunusov.
The changes introduced in the new Constitution are significant in that they are aimed at ensuring the stable development of the national economy by reducing the role of the state in the economy, minimising the use of administrative regulation levers for economic processes, and expanding the participation of the private sector in the new stage of reforms based on the principles of economic liberalisation and wide introduction of market mechanisms.
From this perspective, one of the most important changes introduced is strengthening in the Constitution the regulation and limitation of monopolistic activities in the Constitution in order to create equal economic and legal opportunities for all participants of the goods and services market.
In fact, today, creation of an effective competitive environment and gradual reduction of monopoly in the market of goods and services is the priority direction of further development and liberalization of the economy.
In addition to recognizing economic freedom and creating all the conditions for it, the Constitution should establish rules to prevent businessmen from conducting monopolistic activities or unfairly competing with each other by abusing economic freedom.
As a result of reforms within the framework of the Strategy of Actions and the Development Strategy of the New Uzbekistan, there have been created conditions of equal and free competition in Uzbekistan in recent years. The tax burden on business entities has been reduced, in particular, property, income and social tax rates have been halved, value added tax has been reduced from 20% to 15%, and importantly, the rate of voluntary compliance with tax obligations has increased from 80% to 95%. Also, in order to ensure the introduction of the principles of fair competition, 84 different ineffective tax incentives were abolished.
The norm, which is now being included in the Constitution, provides for creation of equal economic and legal opportunities for all participants of the market of goods and services by the state through ensuring competition and fighting against monopolistic activities. The Development Strategy also defines the task to select 200 exporters based on the idea of “New Uzbekistan – the country of competitive products”, turn them into leading exporters and providing them comprehensive support.
The additions to this article serve to stimulate economic growth and innovation, increase the flow of investments and create new jobs, as well as improve the country’s positions in international economic indexes and ratings due to the formation of efficient markets and a healthy competitive environment.
The Author, Furqat Yunusov, is an expert of Uzbekistan’s “Development Strategy” Centre
