Uzbekistan ends VAT exemptions for medical and veterinary services and medicines from 1 April 2024

What changed in detail

Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. ZRU-891 of 28 December 2023 amends the Tax Code. It was published in the National Database of Legislation on 29 December 2023 (No. 03/23/891/0989) and entered into force on 1 January 2024, but Article 7 defers several items to later dates.

Article 4, items 13 and 14, delete:

• Article 243(1), clause 11: the VAT exemption for medical services, other than cosmetology;
• Article 243(1), clause 12: the exemption for veterinary services;
• Article 243(1), clause 13: the exemption for medicines, veterinary medicines and medical and veterinary devices;
• Article 246, clause 11: the exemption for imports of medicines, veterinary medicines, medical and veterinary devices and listed raw materials for producing them.

Article 7 puts items 13 and 14 into effect from 1 April 2024. From that date these supplies and imports are taxed under the general VAT rules.

What it means

The deletions still stand. The current Tax Code on lex.uz shows clauses 11, 12 and 13 of Article 243(1) as removed by ZRU-891 from 1 April 2024, with no replacement exemption, and the weekly feed records no reinstatement.

The change reached well beyond pharmacies: private clinics and veterinary practices became VAT-taxable on their services too, not only sellers of medicines. A later law went further. Law ZRU-1104 of 25 December 2025 added businesses trading in medicines and medical devices, and organisations providing medical services, to Tax Code Article 461(2), the list of those excluded from the simplified turnover tax, with effect for relations from 1 April 2025. Such businesses are therefore in the general regime, including VAT, whatever their turnover.