Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- At a plenary session of the Senate, the Law "On amendments and additions to the Criminal, Criminal Procedure Codes of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan on administrative responsibility in connection with increased responsibility for the illegal use of energy resources" was discussed.

It was noted that despite the measures taken to curb cases of illegal use of energy resources and ensure that consumers comply with the rules for using natural gas and electricity, the number of violations of the law related to the illegal use of energy resources is increasing.

In particular, in 2022 and the past period of the current year, the Prosecutor General’s Office initiated 433 criminal cases on violations of the rules for the use of electricity and natural gas. As a result of these crimes, the interests of the state suffered material damage in the amount of 368.1 billion soums.

Also, 1,624 illegal connections to water supply networks were revealed, and an additional payment in the amount of 7 billion 144 million soums was collected from violators.

The insufficiency of measures of responsibility for the illegal use of energy resources, defined in the current Criminal Code, does not make it possible to take appropriate measures against persons who have committed such a crime and caused major damage to the state.

In this regard, it was especially noted that there was a need to strengthen the measures of responsibility for cases of illegal use of energy resources and failure to comply with the instructions of authorized bodies.

This Law is important in that, along with the elimination of the above problems, it is aimed at strengthening liability for the illegal use of energy resources.

In particular, cases of committing a crime for commercial purposes by unauthorized connection to public electric, heat, gas or water networks or deliberate damage to metering devices for electric energy, natural gas, cold or hot water, including their seals, or interference with metering devices from the outside in order to change their performance is now envisaged to be regarded as the crime of theft.

At the same time, the concept of “commercial purpose” is introduced into the Criminal Code, and it is established that this is a goal aimed at making profit, income, obtaining benefits in certain activities of individuals and legal entities.

The law establishes that the preliminary investigation of cases related to the illegal use of energy resources is carried out by the prosecutor’s office.

In order to fully ensure state control in the field, the prevention of offenses, the discussion centered on the issue of transferring to the courts the authority to consider administrative responsibility for failure to comply with the written instructions of the Uzenergoinspektsiya.

The senators also paid special attention to the fact that the powers to promptly eliminate cases of non-compliance with the rules for the use of electricity and gas are transferred from the courts to the Uzenergoinspektsiya and its territorial departments.

As a result of the discussion, the law was approved by the senators.