Deputies of the Legislative Chamber adopted a law on consumer credits for imported goods

According to gazeta.uz, the Legislative Chamber adopted a law that allows the issuance of consumer loans for imported goods (now they are issued only for local cars and household appliances). The President instructed to make such amendments back in October 2018. The document will now be considered by the Senate.

The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, at the meeting on January 17, adopted amendments to the law “On Consumer Credit”, which provides for the issuance of consumer loans for imported goods. The document has been sent to the Senate for consideration.

Today, consumer loans in Uzbekistan are issued only for domestic cars, household appliances and services.

Last week, after the adoption of the amendments only in the first reading, the deputy from the UzLiDeP faction Doniyor Ganiev was indignant at the delay and proposed to adopt the document immediately in the second and third readings.

At the meeting on Tuesday, he admitted that it was the right idea to finalize the document. In particular, the responsible committee of the Legislative Chamber clarified that individuals and legal entities can be an entity selling a product (service). Keeping the previous version of the document in practice could lead to problems, he said.

In addition, today the consumer is obliged to notify in advance in writing the manufacturer or organization that sells consumer goods (services) about receiving a financial consumer loan. Now the notification order is excluded.

Doniyor Ganiev previously explained the importance of these amendments. “On the one hand, this illogical restriction caused inconvenience to the population of the country, limiting the choice, and on the other hand, supporting local monopolies under the slogan of ‘localization’, it served to raise prices for goods and services and, thereby, to form a non-competitive environment”,- he noted. .

The parliamentarian said that residents of Uzbekistan today cannot get a consumer loan from banks for the purchase of foreign-made electric vehicles, which “compete in price and quality with the cars of our local monopoly”, or for the purchase of high-quality household appliances of foreign brands.

“As a result, people are forced to buy such goods only in installments, at interest rates several times higher than bank consumer loans, in household appliances stores or unreliable leasing companies”,- he said.

Back in October 2018, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the decree ordering the abolition of the requirement to provide a consumer loan for the purchase of only locally produced goods from January 1, 2019.

In June 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers also decided to lift this requirement by October 2021.

In July 2020, the Antimonopoly Committee proposed to issue consumer loans for foreign-made goods, and the loan itself – in cash and in foreign currency. But those amendments were never adopted after public discussion.

Public discussion of the draft law on amendments to the law “On Consumer Credit” was completed in September 2022.

Thus, more than four years later, the Legislative Chamber approved the amendments. The document still has to be considered by the Senate and signed by the president.