Officers of the State Security Service, together with other departments, arrested several officials red-handed while receiving a bribe, the Uzbekistan 24 TV channel reported.
The State Security Service in Tashkent, together with the city prosecutor's office and the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the Prosecutor General's Office, arrested a senior inspector of the Yunusabad district Tax Inspectorate while receiving a bribe of US$ 3,500 from the founder of a local company (LLC).
“As it turned out, in return for this money, he promised to issue a positive conclusion of a desk audit planned at this enterprise,” said Makhliyo Valikulova, an employee of the State Security Service reported.
Currently, the tax authorities are conducting desk audits in companies that carried out "dubious" financial transactions, within which the amount of VAT offset is illegally reduced. As of May 11, in order to clarify the unjustified offset of VAT amounts worth 1.4 trillion soums, a desk tax audit was completed at 12,786 enterprises across the country. As a result, 12,539 of them (98.1%) confirmed the fact of "fictitious" transactions worth 1.3 trillion soums, the State Tax Committee said.
In the Andijan province, the chief inspector of the State Tax Inspectorate of Bulakashi district was arrested while receiving 15 million soums. Despite the absence of tax arrears for 33 acres of land, he allegedly told the owner that he had a debt and promised to close it for 15 million soums.
In Namangan province, an official of the provincial Department of Agriculture was detained while receiving US$ 10 thousand. He allegedly promised the entrepreneur of the Chartak district to assist in the adoption of a decision by the district mayor on the allocation of 10 hectares of land on the territory of Yangikurgan district for gardening.
Pre-investigation found that he had to transfer this money to the deputy mayor of Yangikurgan district. the deputy mayor was detained while receiving US$ 10 thousand in Namangan.
“Using his powers as a member of the mayor office’s commission to consider the issue of land allocation, he was going to allocate 10 hectares of land from those used by another LLC,” said Makhliyo Valikulova, an employee of the State Security Service.
The DXX department and the prosecutor's office of the Jizzakh province also detained the head of the Jizzakh city finance department, who was temporarily acting as the first deputy city mayor. He is suspected of extorting US$ 2,000 from an entrepreneur for winning a tender for the reconstruction and construction of social facilities.
