Deputies discussed a number of draft laws

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 30 November 2018, a regular meeting of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis was held. During it, the deputies considered a number of draft laws, aimed at legal support of reforms carried out in various areas of the socio-political, social and economic life of the country.

All issues on the meeting’s agenda were tentatively discussed at meetings of factions of political parties in the lower house of parliament, as well as the deputy group of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan.

Deputies began work with consideration of the issue of the draft law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On ratification of the Treaty on Strategic Partnership between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Tajikistan (Tashkent, 17 August 2018)”.

This draft law was prepared in accordance with the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated 28 August 2018, envisages ratification of the Treaty, signed by the heads of the two states on 17 August 2018 in the city of Tashkent during the state visit of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon to Uzbekistan.

In accordance with the Treaty, the parties establish and comprehensively develop long-term and stable strategic partnership based on the principles of equality and mutual benefit, peaceful coexistence and mutual trust. The document defines the prospects for development of interstate relations. The basic principles and priority directions of bilateral cooperation in political, trade, economic, transport and communication, investment, water and energy, environmental, cultural, humanitarian, military-technical and other fields have been outlined.

According to the deputies, the adoption of this draft law, reflecting the foreign policy of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, aimed at further strengthening the bonds of good neighborliness and friendship, will raise the relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to a new level, strengthen bilateral ties.

Then the deputies discussed the draft laws “On accession of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms from Illegal Reproduction of their Phonograms (Geneva, 29 October 1971)”, “On Accession of Uzbekistan to the Treaty of the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright (Geneva, 20 December 1996) ”and“ On the Accession of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Treaty of the World Intellectual Property Organization on Performances and Phonograms (Female Eva, 2 December 1996) ”.

These draft laws were developed in order to ensure the execution of the points of the joint statement of the heads of two states during the official visit of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the United States on 15-17 May 2018, envisaging for Uzbekistan’s membership in these treaties, as well as the relevant decree of the head of our country, signed on the basis of visit

Documents on accession to these international treaties and conventions will be evidence of Uzbekistan’s strict compliance with international requirements in the field of copyright and related intellectual property rights, protection of the rights of authors of literary and artistic works, performers and reproduction of their phonograms.

According to the deputies, Uzbekistan’s accession to these international documents will serve to resolve an issue that is becoming increasingly global - ensuring the protection of copyrights to works of art, literary and artistic works, and ultimately, further improving the image of our country in the world community.

After that, at the meeting, the deputies reviewed the draft law “On introducing amendments and addenda to the Tax Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan in connection with the improvement of the mechanisms for collecting state duty in the courts”.

It was noted that recently in the judicial and legal sphere consistent reforms are being carried out. It is noteworthy that these changes cover all aspects of the sphere, including the issues of optimizing the size of the state duty and fair distribution of court costs among all participants in the judicial process.

The draft law envisages introduction of appropriate amendments to legislative acts in connection with the reduction of the rates of state duties when applying to the courts in civil cases in this direction. According to the parliamentarians, this innovation when submitting claims to civil courts, economic, administrative courts will serve as an important legal basis in a separate definition of the objects of duty collection, based on the correlation of disputes.

The subject of a lively discussion on agenda of the meeting was also the draft law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On introducing amendments and addenda to the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On protection of atmospheric air”.

It was emphasized that the purpose of this draft law is to improve the regulatory and economic mechanisms and means in protection of atmospheric air, to develop a system of economic measures applied as a result of violation of the law, and to create legal mechanisms to ensure the interests of individuals and legal entities in the field.

At the previous meeting of the lower house of parliament, members of the faction UzLiDeP, noting that the adoption of this draft law would be an obstacle to the growth of the country’s economy, development of production, in particular, promotion of entrepreneurship, actively advocated the protection of the interests of entrepreneurs. In the process of preparing the draft law for the second reading, these objections of deputies were taken into account, and the draft was finalized accordingly. At the same time, first of all, the control functions and rights in this area of special authorities of the state in the protection of atmospheric air are specified. At the same time, the rights and obligations of citizens, self-government bodies of citizens, non-state non-profit organizations are clarified.

As the deputies stressed, the adoption of this draft law will serve to reduce the amount of emissions into the atmospheric air, thereby ensuring environmental safety, preserving human life, his health and the gene pool, and ecological stability.

The next issue discussed at the meeting is the draft law “On Amendments to Article 177 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Article 170 of the Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Administrative Responsibility”.

It was noted that despite implementation of reforms in the sphere of liberalization of foreign currency exchange in our country, offenses related to illegal traffic in foreign currency are still increasing. A draft law prepared with this in mind envisages amending the sanction of article 170 of the Administrative Responsibility Code, article 177 of the Criminal Code, thereby defining penalties for the illegal acquisition and sale of currency values, as well as an increase in fines.

According to the deputies, the adoption of this law will enhance the effectiveness of prevention of this category of offenses, increase the level of acquisition of foreign currency by the population through exchange points, eliminate the existing shadow sector in the economy and prevent uncontrolled outflows of foreign currency. 

The deputies also discussed in detail the draft law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

This draft law was developed in order to bring the legislation on the activities of the Department at the General Prosecutor’s Office in compliance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated May 23, 2018, as well as international standards in the fight against the legalization of income derived from criminal activities, financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

According to the document, the Department was reorganized into the Department for Combating Economic Crimes at the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan, identified its main tasks and functions in the fight against economic crimes and corruption, legalization of income derived from criminal activities, financing terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The project envisages introduction of amendments and additions to 19 laws and 5 codes. They reflect a change in the name of the Department, its tasks and functions, a number of important changes regarding the development, on the basis of international standards, of a legal mechanism for countering the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, identifying, assessing risks, determining and ensuring measures to minimize them, increasing the responsibility of organizations conducting operations with cash or other property, as well as strengthening of control over their activities.

Deputy Sh. Polvonov spoke at the meeting and provided detailed information on the work carried out by the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan in ensuring the implementation of the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2017-2018. It was stated that in the control and analytical events conducted by the Legislative Chamber of the Parliament and its committees, special attention is paid to the issues of improving the legal culture of the population and combating corruption. In particular, as of 2017 and October 1 of the current year, 33 parliamentary hearings were held, 6 parliamentary inquiries were sent, and the committees heard information from the heads of 66 state and economic bodies. Also during the reporting period, the committees held more than 50 events aimed at studying the state of implementation of legislative acts.

During the meeting, the relevant resolution of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis was adopted on this issue.

The deputies reviewed and approved the issue on the agenda according to the proposal of the Milliy Tiklanish Democratic Party of Uzbekistan faction to hear information from the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan B. Sayfullayev "On the implementation of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan" On the protection and use of cultural heritage. "

At the meeting, other issues included in the powers of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan were also discussed, relevant resolutions were adopted.