Clusters that received 20 billion soums of unjustified income were identified

The Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights reported that cotton textile and oil clusters received 20 billion soums in unjustified income.

In the first half of 2024, the Competition Committee will monitor the placement of highly liquid and monopolistic products on stock exchanges by clusters, aiming to prevent artificial price increases through daily and monthly observations.

Inspections of highly liquid and monopolistic products across the republic revealed several issues:

• Failure to place products on the stock exchange within the specified periods or in appropriate volumes.
• Not posting schedules on the exchange's official website within the required time frame.
• Downloading and sending products under forward contracts in less than a month.
• Instances of direct sales based on contracts.
• Actions that restrict or potentially restrict competition during stock exchange trading.

These factors can directly or indirectly influence the prices of food and knitted products, causing price increases in consumer markets.

"Based on the studies, around 20 billion soums of unjustified income were discovered in the Republic, indicating violations of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan 'On Competition' and confirmed by the Cabinet of Ministers' decision No. 170 on March 18, 2020. A case has been initiated against all clusters that violated the law, and decisions and instructions regarding responsibility have been issued. The work on this issue continues," the report stated.

Previously, decisions by some district governors in the Jizzakh region were found to contain legal violations, leading to their cancellation.