The size of Uzbekistan’s shadow economy is estimated at over 50% of GDP, the first deputy economy minister Mubin Mirzayev said at International Press Club meeting Thursday.
According to him, this hinders the economic growth and results in reduced revenues for the state budget. The first step towards solving this problem was the liberalization of the foreign exchange market, the next would be reforming the tax system.
"For example, value added tax can bring up to 80% to the state budget if it is collected without taking into account privileges and preferences. I want to say that by July 1 we will revise the tax system. Secondly, we will make concrete proposals to create a competitive environment and equal conditions for all entrepreneurs, which will allow legalizing the shadow economy," he added.
The decrease of the shadow economy is expected to expand the tax base and ensure greater sustainability of the revenue part of the state budget.
For comparison: according to the research of the International Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the volume of the informal economy in Russia in 2016 was 39% of GDP, Azerbaijan - 67%, Ukraine - 45.9%, Turkey - 25.7%. USA (7.7%), Japan (10%) and China (10.1%) are estimated to have lowest size of the shadow economy.
