Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Normal customs clearance procedures for mobile devices brought into Uzbekistan from abroad have resumed at Tashkent International Airport. Temporary measures suspending clearance and introducing additional phone checks have been lifted, and several hundred devices previously held by customs authorities are being returned to their owners. Customs Committee press secretary Khusan Tangriyev announced this at a press conference on 11 November.
He said representatives of UZIMEI and the Customs Committee met at Tashkent International Airport on the morning of 11 November and held talks.
Following the meeting, a decision was made to ensure the permanent presence of UZIMEI representatives at the airport. They will provide practical assistance to customs officers when more detailed checks of mobile device IMEI identifiers are required.
As a result, the temporary suspension of clearance and additional phone checks has been cancelled. The import and customs clearance of mobile devices are once again being carried out under normal procedures. Work has also begun to return several hundred mobile devices previously held under customs control to their owners.
During the press conference, journalists asked whether the resumption of clearance was a temporary measure intended to ease public discontent and end discussions on social media.
“No, absolutely not. We are informing you that customs clearance of mobile devices has resumed under normal procedures,” the Customs Committee representative replied.
Asked whether the UZIMEI system was necessary, Khusan Tangriyev said the Customs Committee was an executive body and had no authority to assess government decisions.
“We are not entitled to express an opinion on whether the UZIMEI system is necessary or unnecessary. We are an agency responsible for implementing laws and government instructions. Therefore, I believe that assessing the necessity of this system is outside our remit,” he said.
A representative of the UZIMEI centre also stressed that the organisation carries out its assigned tasks and is not authorised to discuss the merits of the relevant Cabinet of Ministers resolution.
“We have no right to oppose this decision. Moreover, since this is outside our remit, we are not authorised to discuss the decision itself. We have been given a task, and we are carrying it out,” the representative said.
Earlier reports said additional checks on mobile devices had been temporarily introduced at Tashkent International Airport pending clarification of issues related to the identification of their IMEI numbers and confirmation that the devices had been legally imported.
What happened earlier
Previously, social media posts claimed that mobile phones belonging to passengers arriving from abroad at Tashkent International Airport were being temporarily confiscated for examination periods of up to 30 days.
There were also claims that devices could be registered within one day without examination in exchange for an additional payment.
The Customs Committee denied reports that mobile devices were subject to mandatory 30-day storage or additional charges. However, it confirmed that customs clearance of phones had been temporarily suspended while issues related to IMEI verification and the legality of imports were being clarified.
At the 11 November press conference, agency representatives explained that the decision had been prompted by the discovery of new schemes for illegally importing mobile phones.
In particular, customs officers identified cases in which expensive smartphones were declared as cheaper devices. They also detected cases of identifiers being altered through software reinstallation, or reflashing.
According to the Customs Committee, in some cases the IMEI code displayed in a phone’s settings differed from the identifier shown by a USSD request.
The agency explained that verifying the authenticity of IMEI identifiers, checking whether they correspond to specific devices and examining phones’ usage history on mobile networks require specialised expertise. This need for additional checks was cited as the reason for ensuring the permanent presence of UZIMEI specialists at the airport.
According to the Customs Committee, 4.1 million mobile devices were officially imported into Uzbekistan between January and October 2026. This was 1 million more than during the same period in 2025.
Customs revenue from mobile device imports increased 2.1-fold to 2 trillion soums.
More than 452,000 iPhone smartphones were officially imported into the country during the first 10 months of 2026. Customs payments on these devices amounted to 756.6 billion soums, 6.2 times higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year.
