Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 2 August, on the eve of the plenary session, a meeting of the Senate Committee on Budget and Economic Reforms was held.

It was attended by members of the Committee, experts, representatives of relevant ministries and departments, deputies, heads of secretariats of local Kengashes, specialists and media workers.

Issues to be discussed at the next plenary session of the Senate were preliminary considered at the meeting.

The senators noted that the Law "On Public Debt" envisages the priority of public debt and the cost of servicing it, the maximum volume of public debt, the definition of the powers of public authorities and the public debt management department.

When developing this Law, attention was also paid to the creation of an effective integral system for establishing parliamentary and public control in the management of public debt. The law establishes that the maximum amount of public debt in relation to GDP cannot exceed 60%, only social and infrastructure projects can be financed from public debt.

In accordance with the norms of the Law, the powers of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the chambers of the Oliy Majlis, the Accounts Chamber, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance in the field of public debt management are established.

In particular, the Ministry of Finance is determined by the authorized body for public debt management.

The meeting also heard a report from the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers on the implementation of the State Program based on the results in the first half of 2022.

It was noted that thanks to the measures taken, the gross domestic product grew by 5.4%, funds in the amount of US$157.5 million were disbursed. Within the framework of the State Localization Program, 28 types of products worth 3 trillion 940.2 billion soums were produced.

At the same time, it was noted at the meeting that draft legal acts developed in pursuance of 33 points of the State Program for accelerated development and ensuring high growth rates of the national economy have not been adopted so far.

During the discussion of the implementation of the program, the senators also paid special attention to issues that are the cause of numerous complaints from the population.

In addition, the National report on combating corruption in the Republic of Uzbekistan was also discussed.

It was noted that despite the reforms carried out in this area, corruption phenomena do not decrease in the economic and social spheres. For 6 months of 2022, 95 crimes related to embezzlement of budgetary funds and other manifestations of corruption in public procurement were solved, damage to state interests in the amount of 55.2 billion soums was caused.

It was noted that violations of the law were mainly committed by falsifying tender purchase documents, purchasing products at artificially inflated prices, as well as non-acceptance of purchased products in the amount of 5.2 billion soums and failure to perform work, services, registration or non-delivery.

On the issues discussed at the meeting, the appropriate decision of the Committee was adopted.