Julia Eckert, Georg Elwert (1996):
Land Tenure in Uzbekistan

3.3 Taxes

Taxes are paid according to the value of the land. The value of agricultural land relates to its potential productivity, which is estimated by the surveyor. [FN 104] The tax differentiates between irrigated and non-irrigated land, according to soil quality and according to the need of fertiliser. Additionally, soviet agronomical reports are used to estimate potential yield. The value of agricultural land is strictly connected to its potential yield.

New Dehkhans are exempt from tax payments for two to three years. (two years in 72 % of the cases, three years in 28 % of the cases.) The Shirkat tenants as well as the whole Shirkat are officially exempt from tax payments, but many said they were already paying taxes. [FN 105] This discrepancy between official taxation policy and tax payments might be due to the inability to differentiate between various payments and costs on the side of the farmers. It might also be due to inofficial taxes appropriated by the administration for official purposes or privately appropriated. Both assumptions could not be verified.

In the Shirkats the tenants pay their tax, or what is meant to be taxes, to the Shirkat and the Shirkat pays to the tax office. In 52% of the cases people said they were paying taxes to the kolkhoz, in 28 % they said they were paying to the Hokhimiat and only in 20 % people said there were paying the tax office. This might also be due to a confusion of terms of the various offices at the Hokhimiat, that is the tendency to treat the administration as a unity.

In very few cases a tax of one or two Sum were paid for the family yards.