Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Exactly a month has passed since the day restrictive measures were introduced in Uzbekistan to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection in the country. The State Tax Committee (STC) during this period has been closely monitoring food prices and essential commodities, the press service of the State Tax Committee informs.

By a decision of a joint meeting of the Republican Special Commission and the Special Staff on 14 April 2020, the State Tax Committee of Uzbekistan was again instructed to take measures to prevent artificial price increases.

The focus of the STC is on the prices of foodstuffs, medicines, medical products and supplies, as well as essential goods delivery services. The activity of tax service employees of control and preventive measures in markets, retail outlets is not reduced.

Special working groups to control unstable changes in prices, which include tax officials and prosecutors, are created in each district, city, regional departments and the Central Office of the State Tax Committee of Uzbekistan.

From the first days of quarantine to the present, their main task is to prevent unjustified price increases by unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

To date, the total number of calls received by the STC reached 21 751. Citizens are unhappy with the prices of flour, potatoes, butter, meat, as well as other food and non-food products.

So, for the “helpline” of the STC, the largest number of requests was received from residents of Tashkent (1240), Kashkadarya region (1234) and Tashkent region (1093). At the same time, 54% of all appeals are complaints about “expensive potatoes”. Overstated flour prices were recorded in Kashkadarya region (516), Samarkand region (421) and Namangan region (312). In total, during the quarantine period, 1,363 applications are associated with medical masks and antiseptic agents. The highest rate remains in Tashkent - 513 calls.

The operators of the Call Center of the STC now daily receive about 250 calls, while in the early days of quarantine, the operators processed an average of 900 calls. In total, 13,252 calls were received in a month. Consumers complained about increased oil prices - 508, potatoes - 8 063, flour - 4 816 and meat - 905.

Cases of unreasonable price increases are promptly reported to the management of the STC, further issues are resolved locally in the framework of the current legislation.

In relation to sellers who unreasonably raise prices for consumer goods, tax officials and prosecutors conduct individual explanatory discussions.

Currently, there is a decrease in the number of telephone calls, which indicates the effectiveness of ongoing preventive measures.