Joint stock companies are obliged to sell at least 15 % of shares to foreign investors
From the 1st of July 2016 a new procedure will be introduced in Uzbekistan under which each company must have in its statutory fund not less than 15 % of the shares owned by foreign investors, according to the decree issued by the President.
The president ordered the government to submit proposals for the necessary amendments to the law «On joint-stock companies and protection of shareholders’ rights» and other laws and regulations «before the 1st of April 2016, and to approve the charter of the joint stock company developed on the basis of the law.
This new procedure will not touch the joint stock companies operating in the production and primary processing of strategic raw materials, as well as the subjects of natural monopolies and providers of socially important goods and services at regulated prices .
Companies which can not meet the requirements for the sale of 15 % share of foreign shareholders not until 1 July 2016 will be converted into other legal forms excluding them from the register stock with all the consequences for the provision of tax benefits and benefits.
It is planned to adopt a specific schedules for valuation of shares of joint stock companies by the end of January in order to continue exhibiting them for sale.
In addition, the President gave a number of tax benefits to the enterprises with participation of foreign investors.
For example, a company in which the share of foreign investment amounts from 15 to 33 % will receive income tax exemption, as well as property tax exemption, privileges for the improvement and development of social infrastructure, single tax, as well as exemption from the mandatory contributions to the Republican Road Fund.
In addition, Karimov dismissed foreign investors from the taxation of their income in the form of dividends on shares held by them in joint-stock companies until 1st of January 2020.
Joint-stock companies with foreign investments were also exempt from payment of state duties in recourse to the courts with a claim for violation of their rights and legitimate interests.
