Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, on 4 November, in the Senate of the Oliy Majlis in the form of video conference, a seminar was held on the topic "The role of local Kengashes of people’s deputies in the budget process and organization of parliamentary control over budget execution."

It was attended by members of the Senate, deputies of the Jokargy Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional, district (city) and Tashkent city Kengashes of people’s deputies, employees of the apparatus of the upper house of parliament, economists-scientists and representatives of the media.

First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sodik Safoev, in his speech at the opening of the seminar, emphasized that a number of reforms are being carried out in the country to ensure the independence of local budgets and strengthen their sources of income. In addition, he noted that, on the initiative of the head of state, the opportunity has been created to completely leave the generated revenues of local budgets at the disposal of local khokimiyats.

On 19 October, during a video conference chaired by the head of state, it was discussed the need to further expand the powers of local Kengashes in the formation of the budget, to conduct constant control over the publication on their official websites of the composition and effectiveness of expenditures carried out by state bodies.

In addition, attention is focused on the mechanism of effective parliamentary control over local budgets, as well as the norms established by law in this direction. In particular, the expediency of knowledge about the regulatory legal acts of the budgetary system and the full use of their powers was emphasized.

It was noted that the implementation of parliamentary control over the execution of the local budget can be divided into three stages of control: primary, current and final. Including,

- primary control - discussion and adoption of the draft local budget for the next financial year, making changes and additions to it;

- current control - consideration of the implementation of the local budget at a meeting of the Kengash’s standing commission and submitting it for discussion at the session;

- final control - hearing, discussion of the report on the execution of the local budget based on the results of the financial year and the adoption of an appropriate decision.

This serves the purpose of determining the compliance of the draft local budget developed for the next year with the budget and other legislative acts, analyzing the objectivity of the plan for revenues and expenditures of the local budget, and most importantly, reflecting in the draft budget the issues of resolving the problems raised by the population that caused their dissatisfaction.

Along with this, it was said that the deputy’s request for budget execution is one of the most important and necessary forms of parliamentary control.

It was noted that a deputy has the right to send a deputy’s request to officials of state power and administration bodies located in the relevant territory, demanding a substantiated explanation on issues within their competence.

Today, social networks often highlight cases of misuse, shortage and appropriation, illegal use of budget funds, which are widely discussed by the public and cause discontent.

In the past period of this year, about 8 billion soums of budget funds were allowed.

One of the effective means of parliamentary control is the timely hearing of reports from officials responsible for the implementation of the local budget, programs of socio-economic development of the territory.

It was noted that the state budget revenues for 9 months of 2020 amounted to 94.45 trillion soums, the forecast set at 91.79 trillion soums was fulfilled by 102.9% or in the amount of 2.66 trillion soums. Compared to the corresponding period of 2019, state budget revenues increased by 15.3 trillion soums.

In January-September 2020, local budget revenues made up 19.97 trillion soums, in addition to the forecasted revenues, local budgets have funds in the amount of 2.19 trillion soums.

It is expected that by the end of this year, receipts will reach 129.6 trillion soums instead of the forecasted 128.5 trillion soums, which is more by 1 trillion soums.

In the 2021 budget, the State Tax Committee and the State Customs Committee have identified additional tasks, including organizing work to reduce the shadow economy.

In order to ensure the receipt of the main income of local budgets from 2021, it is proposed to leave tax receipts for the use of mineral resources for cement raw materials in local budgets.

It also envisages the 15 percent indexation of property tax, land tax and water use tax.

At the same time, the procedure for preventing an increase in the property tax of individuals by more than 1.3 times compared to 2020 will remain.

In order to increase the independence of local governments, from 2021 they will be given the right to set land tax rates on non-agricultural land in the context of districts and cities within the coefficient from 0.5 to 2 based on tax rates established by the Tax Code, depending on economic development territory.

District (city) Kengashes each year can determine the boundaries of important territories located on their territories, and introduce growth and fall rates in the established land tax rates in the range from 0.7 to 1.3, depending on the importance of the territory at the district and city levels ( quarter, massif, microdistrict, street).

In turn, the implementation of public and parliamentary control over the use of budget funds helps to ensure transparency in the use of State budget funds and increase the efficiency of funds.

During the seminar, attention was paid to such issues as the procedure for the formation, consideration and approval of the State budget, the role of local Kengashes of people’s deputies in the budget process and the organization of parliamentary control over the budget, the process of generating incomes of the republican and local budgets and planning their expenses, and execution processes, additional sources of income for the local budget.

Also, proposals and recommendations were given regarding the work to establish public and parliamentary control over the use of budget funds.