Major energy companies significantly reduce tax payments

Over the past seven months, tax revenues decreased by 24% at "Uzbekneftegaz," 42% at the Bukhara Oil Refinery, 2.2 times at "Issiqlik Elektr Stansiyalari," and 3.2 times at "Uz-Kor Gas Chemical." The reduction in tax payments at "Uzbekistan GTL" is unknown, but it has decreased by at least 1.5 times.

In Uzbekistan, 65,134 companies operating in the manufacturing sector paid 23 trillion 839 billion UZS in taxes during January-July 2024, which is 6.4% more than the same period last year, the State Tax Committee reports.

During the reporting period, excluding NMMC and AMMC, the highest tax payments among manufacturers were made by "Uzbekneftegaz" JSC, totaling 2 trillion 290.7 billion UZS. However, this is 24.1% less than the same period last year. For comparison, in January-July 2023, the company paid 3 trillion 19.6 billion UZS in taxes.

In 2023, "Uzbekneftegaz" saw its net profit decrease by more than 4.5 times.

Compared to 2023, during the seven-month period, the following state enterprises also significantly reduced their tax payments to the state budget:

Bukhara Oil Refinery LLC from 707.8 billion UZS to 410.3 billion UZS, or by 42%;

"Issiqlik Elektr Stansiyalari" JSC from 816.4 billion UZS to 368.3 billion UZS, or by 2.2 times;

"Uzbekistan Metallurgical Plant" JSC from 295.5 billion UZS to 198.4 billion UZS, or by 32.8%;

"Uz-Kor Gas Chemical" LLC from 547.6 billion UZS to 170.5 billion UZS, or by 3.2 times.

Additionally, companies such as "Uzbekistan GTL," which paid 245.5 billion UZS in taxes during January-July of the previous year, "Qizilqumcement" (privatized), which paid 196.2 billion UZS, and "Uzbekkumir," which paid 141.7 billion UZS, are no longer in the top 20 list of the highest tax-paying companies for the first seven months of 2024.

The period of trust management for "Uzbekkumir" has been extended once again.

"Uzbekistan GTL" paid 254.5 billion UZS in taxes during the first seven months of the previous year. Given that the last company in the top 20 producers this year paid 129.3 billion UZS in taxes, it can be concluded that tax revenues from the GTL plant to the budget have also decreased by at least 49.2%. For reference, the company paid 101 billion UZS in taxes during the first five months of this year.

Earlier, it was reported that despite the start of diesel production by this plant in 2022, diesel imports to Uzbekistan increased 7.3 times instead of decreasing.

Does the $3.4 billion spent on the GTL plant justify itself? A conversation with Otabek Bakirov.

It should be noted that this year, most of the enterprises that significantly reduced their tax payments to the state budget are in the fuel and energy sector.

As a reminder, in the first half of 2024, the amount of subsidies allocated from the state budget amounted to 15 trillion 351 billion UZS, 70.2% of which was used for the energy sector.

"Uztransgaz" also significantly reduced its tax payments.

Infographics presented by the State Tax Committee summarize the results of the first seven months of 2023 and 2024.