A draft law “On amendments and additions to certain Legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan” was published for discussion.

The draft law is aimed at improving procedures for bankruptcy, envisaging filing bankruptcy of individuals, who have lost the status of an individual entrepreneur with a tax debt that arose as a result of entrepreneurial activities.

The document envisages introduction of bankruptcy proceedings against individuals who have lost their status as an individual entrepreneur starting from 2018.

A natural person, who lost the status of an individual entrepreneur or who carried out entrepreneurial activity without state registration, who is unable to satisfy the claims of creditors, if the relevant claims stem from his previous business activities, can be declared bankrupt in accordance with the established procedure, the document says.

The explanatory note to the draft law stated that as of 1 July, the tax debt of 158,000 citizens, who lost their status as a private entrepreneur and citizens who carried out entrepreneurial activities without state registration, exceeds 105.9 billion soums.

In practice, there is no possibility to collect such tax debts, but one cannot recognize it as hopeless as well.

In particular, the debt of 76,700 citizens exceeded 40.3 billion soums in last three years.