Alcohol and tobacco market regulation inspection will be established

A new inspection body for regulating the alcohol and tobacco market will be established in Uzbekistan, as per a decree signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The inspectorate's main responsibilities include participating in the enforcement of the unified state policy on the production and sale of consumer and technical ethyl alcohol, as well as alcohol and tobacco products, ensuring strict control over these processes.

Starting October 1, additional licensing requirements for producing consumer and technical ethyl alcohol and alcohol products will be introduced. These requirements include:

• Adhering to legal stipulations for the timely payment of annual license fees, taxes, and other mandatory payments.
• Meeting quality standards in the production and sale of alcohol products, including the use of excise stamps and mandatory digital marking procedures.
• Video surveillance equipment will be installed to monitor and control the alcohol production processes.

Registration of wholesale alcohol and tobacco contracts is subject to mandatory by tax authorities.

Effective October 1, 2024, the decree mandates:

• The confiscation of production equipment used in illicit alcohol production, production without excise marks or digital markings, or production of substandard quality.
• The removal from circulation of alcohol and tobacco products with counterfeit excise marks, those without excise marks, those not digitally marked, and those with fake marking codes by regulatory authorities. Licenses for trading these products will be revoked accordingly.
• The registration of contracts for the wholesale sale of consumer and technical ethyl alcohol, alcohol, and tobacco products with the tax authorities.
• Imposing a financial penalty of 50 percent of the excise tax amount on unfulfilled production capacity if the utilization of existing capacities in the production of vodka, consumer ethyl alcohol, and liquor-vodka products is below 60 percent at the end of each half-year period.

If the production capacity utilization exceeds 60 percent and the excise tax is fully paid by the end of each half-year, the financial penalty collected will be refunded to the enterprise.