Tashkent Tax Officials Detained on Corruption Charges

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Employees of Uzbekistan’s State Security Service have detained staff of the tax inspection office in Tashkent’s Bektemir district on suspicion of corruption, according to the SGB press service.

According to the agency, the head of one of the district tax inspection departments learned about a complaint related to the failure to issue a cash register receipt in one of the shops. He then allegedly demanded 4 million soums from the entrepreneur in exchange for not drawing up an administrative report and not forwarding the materials to court.

Law enforcement officers detained the suspect while receiving the money through an intermediary from the tax inspectorate.

The investigation also established that in April of this year, an inspector received 1.5 million soums for ignoring a similar complaint involving another failure to issue a cash receipt at the same shop.

A criminal case has been opened in connection with the incident. Investigative actions are ongoing.