At the next meeting of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, the draft law "On amendments and additions to some normative legal acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan aimed at strengthening payment discipline in the field of waste collection and disposal services" was considered and adopted in the first reading. 2

For information: the draft law, developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Climate Change in order to strengthen the discipline of payment for services for the collection and removal of household waste, is designed to ensure the implementation of paragraph 4 of Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 4 "On measures to improve the waste management system and reduce their negative impact on the environmental situation".

In accordance with the document, the laws "On Consumer Protection", "On Competition", and "On Electric Power Industry" provide for the introduction of mechanisms for charging for garbage collection services together with payment for electricity.

In particular, the law "On Consumer Protection" applies the practice of temporarily restricting the acceptance of payments for electricity in case of non-payment for waste collection and disposal services;

According to the law "On Electric Power Industry", sanitary-cleaning enterprises, together with power supply organizations, must inform subscribers via SMS who are in arrears in monthly payment for waste disposal services and used electricity, as well as timely payment for services on time. If the debt is not repaid after informing the consumer, rules are introduced on the temporary restriction of accepting payments for electricity until this debt is eliminated.

For reference: currently, there are a large number of cases of delay or non-payment of payments by the population for waste collection and disposal services, as a result of which accounts receivable (615.6 billion sums) continues to increase annually. Now, if citizens do not repay the debt for sanitation services even after a special warning, they will not be able to pay for electricity until the debt is repaid.

According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. 5 dated January 4, 2024, this system is being implemented in stages in the following order:

At the 1st stage, from January 1, 2024 – in Tashkent, Nukus and the administrative centers of the regions for 6 months of debt;

At the 2nd stage, from August 1, 2024 – in all regions of the republic, for 3 months of debt;

At stage 3, from January 1, 202 - for monthly arrears.

In addition, according to the law, GPS special equipment of sanitary enterprises will now be integrated into the "Toza Makon-billing" platform. In this case, payments are taken into account for residents of this territory only if the system uploads photos to this system proving that special equipment used GPS to enter the relevant territory and that service providers cleaned the designated areas. In particular, if, based on the schedule of sanitary-cleaning enterprises, entry is planned, for example, 8 times a month, payments are calculated through the system as many times as special equipment has fulfilled the plan according to this schedule. If trips are not increased based on the above requirements and photos proving entry and cleaning of the relevant territory are not uploaded, this system will not calculate payments.

The main purpose of the law is to ensure consistency and fairness of payment for sanitation services provided to the public. This, in turn, helps to reduce debt between the population and service organizations, improve the quality of services, and improve investment opportunities. At the same time, this will improve payment discipline and introduce a mechanism for charging mandatory fees for household waste along with electricity bills. In addition, it helps to attract business entities and protects against financial sanctions that may arise in case of late payment of payments.

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