The cancellation of the IMEI registration fee in Uzbekistan is not planned.
It was stated that switching the system to a free form could have a negative impact on the state budget.
More than 97.8 million IMEI codes have been registered in the state registry in Uzbekistan since 2019. According to officials, there are no plans to cancel the fee charged for registering devices.
According to Gazeta.uz, Otabek Azimov, head of the department at the Republican Center for Telecommunications Network Management, the operator of the UzIMEI system, stated that the fee charged for registering an IMEI code is not a tax, but a payment for services provided by the system.
According to him, the revenues are directed toward ensuring the system's operation, upgrading servers, developing the telecommunications sector, improving communication quality in remote areas, and paying employee salaries.
Axmadjon Orifjonov, head of the Center's press service, emphasized that transitioning the system to a free format could have a negative impact on the state budget. Currently, 95 percent of the fees charged for registration fall on importers.
According to the provided statistics, when the system was introduced in 2019, 47.6 million devices were registered automatically and free of charge. Subsequently, importers registered 30.4 million devices, individuals registered 19.03 million, and local manufacturers registered 779 thousand devices.
By IMEI codes, Samsung leads with 35.5 million, followed by Xiaomi with 18.1 million, Nokia with 7.7 million, Apple with 5.8 million, and Huawei with 2.4 million. Of the registered devices, 72.5 million are smartphones and 20.3 million are push-button phones. The number of blocked devices has reached 20.1 million.
Revenues from IMEI code registration amounted to 694 billion soums in 2025 and 459.6 billion soums as of August 1, 2026. Customs duties collected from the official import of mobile devices over the past seven years have exceeded 5 trillion soums.
Officials also note that the UzIMEI system has contributed to an increase in the share of official imports. As a result, official stores of Samsung and Xiaomi have opened in Uzbekistan. It has also been reported that negotiations are currently underway with Apple regarding the opening of an official store in the country.
