Poverty aid, renewable energy, and more: What’s changing in Uzbekistan’s legislation from April 1?

Support for poor families

Under a relevant presidential decree, starting April 1, 2025, new tools to support families listed in the Poor Families Registry will be introduced through the “Social Notebooks” funds. These new support mechanisms include:

• Allocating grants of up to 60 times the Basic Calculation Value (BCV) from the “Women’s Notebook,” “Youth Notebook,” and “Generosity and Assistance” funds to finance social projects aimed at ensuring employment and social engagement for at least three women, youth, or other vulnerable groups.
• From the “Youth Notebook” fund:
• Covering transportation costs for youth with disabilities to attend parasports clubs, up to 1 BCV per month.
• Purchasing specialized sports uniforms, equipment, musical instruments, or tools for youth regularly attending sports or arts clubs for six months, with costs not exceeding 10 BCV.
• Providing assistance of up to 150 BCV through the “Generosity and Assistance” fund to families affected by fires, floods, earthquakes, or other man-made disasters to restore or repair their homes.

Starting April 1, 2025, social assistance through the “Social Notebooks” funds will be extended to families in the Poor Families Registry. Additionally, support for improving housing conditions and healthcare will be available to families whose monthly income per member does not exceed twice the minimum consumer expenditure. Up to 25% of the revenues from the “Women’s Notebook” and “Youth Notebook” funds may be allocated for organizing cultural, educational, sports, and tourism events.

Moreover, from April 1, 2025, loans and subsidies for purchasing equipment, tools, seeds, and seedlings needed to start entrepreneurial activities or self-employment will be provided through the “Social Notebooks” funds, financed by the State Targeted Fund for Poverty Reduction. Starting April 1, 2025, one-time financial aid previously provided through the “Youth Notebook” fund, and from September 1, 2025, through the “Women’s Notebook” fund, will be replaced by allowances for low-income families funded from the state budget. For six months, employment status of family members in the Poor Families Registry will not be considered when assigning these allowances.

Social transport service

By a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, a socially significant transport service project will be piloted in Tashkent, Andijan, and Samarkand starting April 1, 2025, with phased implementation across other regions by the end of 2025.

The project will provide transport services to children with vision or mobility impairments studying at specialized schools, boarding schools (including “care” groups), inclusive classes in general schools, and state pre-school institutions with rehabilitation centers. Subsidies will cover:

• 100% of each trip’s cost for students from families in the Unified Social Protection Registry or Poor Families Registry, up to 1.2 BCV per month per student.
• 60% of each trip’s cost for students from families not in these registries.

These subsidies will be funded by the National Agency for Social Protection’s State Social Protection Fund. The service will be provided by aggregators offering interactive passenger search services for taxis, limited to businesses registered in the Agency’s Transport Service Providers Registry within the “Unified National Social Protection” system. Orders will be placed via mobile apps of registered providers, with service quality monitored through surveys conducted by the Agency’s “Information Technology Center” call center.

Ending exclusive rights of certain entities

From April 1, 2025, exclusive rights of various entities in specific sectors will be abolished, as outlined in the presidential decree “On Measures to Promote Competition in the Economy and Further Enhance the Role of the Private Sector.” Exclusive rights, granted through legislation or individual licenses outside standard procedures, will no longer be recognized unless awarded via competitive tenders. From this date, exclusive rights may only be granted for up to three years for purposes such as ensuring constitutional order, public health, national defense, or disaster prevention.

Entities losing exclusive rights include:

• “Uzexpertiza” JSC and its regional branches for certifying goods imported by enterprises with foreign investment.
• “UzEngineering” Design Institute for pre-project and project documentation of investment projects.
• “National PR Center” for producing and broadcasting tourism promotion content with foreign companies.
• “Sag Agro” LLC for mechanized agricultural services to walnut producers.
• “Uzbekistan Standards Institute” for translating national standards into other languages under contracts.

Family-style children’s homes in neighborhoods

Starting April 1, 2025, small family-style children’s homes will be established in neighborhoods to prevent social orphanhood and provide family-like care and upbringing for orphans and children without parental care. This is part of a presidential decree from November 14, 2024, aimed at improving the child social protection system. The decree introduces:

• Involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in providing long- or short-term care and upbringing services through state social contracts, outsourcing, or other agreements with the Agency.
• The Agency determining the number of children placed in NGO care.
• Monitoring of these services by “Inson” centers.
• Funding for these services from the State Social Protection Fund.

“Green tariff” for renewable energy

A presidential decree on January 30, 2025, under the “Uzbekistan – 2030” strategy, introduces “green tariffs” from April 1, 2025, to encourage renewable energy use. Preferential tariffs will apply to electricity generated from waste and biogas, wind and solar installations by businesses, and surplus solar energy sold to the state by households.

Reference pricing for medicines

From April 1, 2025, a reference pricing system will be introduced for prescription medicines (local and imported), as per a state decision. This includes:

• Selecting at least 10 reference countries based on income levels.
• Manufacturers or their representatives submitting sales prices from their home country, reference countries, and Uzbekistan.
• Setting maximum prices per medicine, prohibiting sales above these in Uzbekistan.