On June 4, 2021, the Tashkent City Council of People’s Deputies, on the basis of a letter from the capital’s khokimiyat, amended the resolution “On the regulation of outdoor advertising in the city of Tashkent”.

The document, which was not officially released to the public (a copy is available in Kun.uz), lifted the moratorium announced on the placement, installation, change and issuance of passports for outdoor advertising objects from April 1 to December 31, 2021.

A new resolution of the Tashkent City Council established the following version of the old clause that declared the moratorium:

“In order to conduct an inventory of outdoor advertising objects (structures) installed in the city of Tashkent, and to form a unified electronic register, take measures to digitize the system for creating equal conditions for all business entities in the field of outdoor advertising, preventing corruption in the field and concluding agreements with entrepreneurs, using modern information and communication technologies, from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021”.

This clause of the Council’s resolution No. 323/37-6 of March 27, 2021 was outlined as follows:

“Declare a moratorium on the placement, installation, change and issuance of passports of outdoor advertising objects (structures) from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 in order to conduct an inventory of outdoor advertising objects (structures) installed in the city of Tashkent, and form a single electronic register”.

Some time before this, the Business Ombudsman told Kun.uz that the present resolution of the Tashkent City Council of People’s Deputies of March 27 was presented as a basis for the dismantling of advertising structures. However, according to the Business Ombudsman, the resolution did not contain instructions for dismantling, and, despite the existence of generally binding norms, a legal examination of the document was not carried out in the justice authorities.

Based on this, a request was sent to the Senate to assess the legality of the Council’s resolution.

It should be noted that the changes in the Council’s resolutions and the capital’s khokimiyat took place against the background of the announcement of a large-scale demolition of advertising billboards in Tashkent.

Earlier, we reported that the outdoor advertising business in the capital belonged to the owners on the basis of property rights, and hundreds of advertising structures worth up to 300 million soums were demolished for unknown reasons.

Entrepreneurs appealed to the presidential public reception, to the Prosecutor General’s Office, to the Ombudsman and to the Tashkent city khokimiyat with a request to protect their legitimate interests, but all attempts were in vain.

The Antimonopoly Committee limited itself to calling on all participants in the process of regulating advertising objects to strictly comply with the requirements of the law “On Advertising” and resolution No. 104 “On Regulation of the Outdoor Advertising Market”.

Subsequently, entrepreneurs used an unusual way to protect their property, writing a memo stating that advertising structures, according to the law, can be dismantled only on the basis of a court order, and asked the President for help. But these advertising structures were also dismantled.

Meanwhile, an advertising structure dismantled near the Gafur Gulom park without a court order collapsed on a Spark car moving along the road. According to the driver, the responsible persons stated that they carried out this work according to the instruction of the Tashkent city khokimiyat, and were not going to fully compensate for the damage caused to the car.

It should be noted that during the coverage of this topic, Kun.uz was also exerted pressure.