Foreign currency accounting in Uzbekistan

Foreign-currency transactions are recorded in soums at the Central Bank exchange rate on the transaction date. Monetary items are remeasured every month; non-monetary items and non-refundable advances are not. NSBU No. 22 sets the accounting rules, while the Tax Code governs the tax treatment of exchange differences.

In brief:

• accounting records and financial statements are generally kept in soums;
• a foreign-currency transaction is initially recognized at the transaction-date exchange rate;
• monetary items are remeasured monthly, and the exchange difference enters financial results;
• the month-end result is that foreign-currency cash and debts reflect the current rate, while assets and non-refundable advances retain their initial-recognition rate.

Updated: 04 September 2026

Who applies NSBU No. 22

This article is for organizations that keep their accounts under the national accounting standards. The current NSBU No. 22 regulates foreign-currency transactions of legal entities regardless of ownership form, but expressly excludes certain organizations: budget-funded organizations, banks, and non-bank credit organizations. Separate sector rules apply to them.

The current standard was introduced by Order No. 201 of the Minister of Economy and Finance dated 6 December 2024 and has been effective since 1 January 2025. It replaced the former NSBU No. 22 and the amendments to that standard.

An organization must separately check whether it is required to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Joint-stock companies, commercial banks, insurance organizations, and large taxpayers have kept accounts under IFRS since 2021; an organization that voluntarily prepares IFRS financial statements is exempt from NSBU statements. Such an entity applies the relevant international standard to foreign-currency transactions, rather than the national method described here.

This article deals specifically with accounting under NSBU No. 22. The broader choice between national standards and IFRS is a separate subject. The composition and filing timetable of financial statements should also be checked after the foreign-currency accounts for the period are closed.

Transactions treated as foreign-currency transactions

A transaction is a foreign-currency transaction when the amount receivable or payable is denominated in a foreign currency. NSBU No. 22 identifies three groups:

• acquiring or selling goods, work, or services for foreign currency;
• borrowing or lending where the amount payable or receivable is denominated in foreign currency;
• acquiring or selling other assets, and assuming or settling liabilities in foreign currency.

Records are maintained both in the foreign-currency amount for analytical purposes and in the soum equivalent for ledgers and financial statements. A contract may state the price in a foreign currency and require settlement in a form permitted by law, but the accounting entry still requires the transaction date and official rate on that date.

Determining the exchange rate and transaction date

Initial recognition uses the official Central Bank rate against the soum. The transaction date is not the date of any document that happens to be signed; it is the date on which the transaction result is recognized in the accounts under the law or contract. NSBU No. 22 provides a list of dates for common situations.

In practice, the accountant needs two figures: the amount in foreign currency and the exchange rate on the prescribed date. Their product is the soum measurement. If the debt remains unsettled, its new soum measurement is compared with the previous measurement at the next transaction date or month-end.

Monetary and non-monetary items

The distinction determines whether an amount is remeasured after initial recognition. A monetary item represents a right to receive or an obligation to deliver an identifiable amount of currency. A non-monetary item creates no such right or obligation.

The decisive test is the substance of the right or obligation, not the account name. If the organization must receive a fixed USD 10,000, the receivable is monetary. If it has paid a non-refundable advance and will receive goods rather than money, the advance is non-monetary.

Calculating and recording an exchange difference

An exchange difference is the change in the soum measurement of the same foreign-currency amount between two dates. It arises when an unsettled monetary item is remeasured at month-end and when that item is later settled. The result is included directly in financial income or expense.

Under the current chart of accounts, a positive difference on monetary items is recorded in account 9540, while a negative difference is recorded in account 9620. The corresponding account depends on the item being remeasured: a foreign-currency bank account, receivable, liability, credit, or loan.

Example. An organization shipped goods worth USD 10,000 when the rate was UZS 12,500. The initial receivable is UZS 125,000,000. At month-end the rate rises to UZS 12,650: the new measurement is UZS 126,500,000 and the positive exchange difference is UZS 1,500,000. If the customer pays later at UZS 12,600, a negative difference of UZS 500,000 arises against the month-end measurement.

When a liability is denominated in foreign currency, the economic sign is reversed: a rate increase raises the soum amount of the debt and normally produces a negative difference, while a rate decrease reduces the debt and produces a positive difference. NSBU No. 22 prohibits the accumulation method, so current exchange differences cannot be deferred at will until the debt is settled.

Accounting for foreign-currency advances

A non-refundable advance is not remeasured because settlement will occur through delivery of an asset, work, or service, rather than repayment of a fixed amount of currency. For a purchase, the portion covered by the prepayment is recognized at the advance-payment date rate. The unpaid balance is recognized at the rate on the date the asset, work, or service is recognized.

The seller applies the mirror approach: revenue for the portion covered by an advance is recognized at the advance-receipt date rate, while the remaining portion uses the rate on the revenue-recognition date.

Example. Equipment costs USD 20,000. The purchaser pays a non-refundable advance of USD 8,000 at UZS 12,400, and recognizes the equipment when the rate is UZS 12,700. The first USD 8,000 becomes UZS 99,200,000, and the remaining USD 12,000 becomes UZS 152,400,000. Initial cost is UZS 251,600,000; the prepaid portion does not change because of the delivery-date rate.

If the contract or actual circumstances require a cash refund, classification must follow the substance of the obligation. A refundable cash claim may be monetary even if the ledger calls it an advance.

Accounts and supporting documents

Foreign currency in the cash office is recorded in account 5020. Funds in banks in Uzbekistan and abroad are separated between accounts 5210 and 5220. A foreign-currency bank entry is supported by bank statements and documents, and analytical accounting is kept for each open account.

For import and export settlements, reconcile the contract, invoice, shipping documents or cargo customs declaration, bank statement, and payment document. If a correspondent bank deducts its fee from export proceeds or a refunded import advance, that fee does not remain a receivable: it is recorded in the expense section of the exporter’s or importer’s balance sheet.

Charter capital and reclassification

A founder’s foreign-currency contribution is recognized at the contribution-date rate. A difference between the contribution measurement in the founding documents on the registration date and the measurement of the property actually contributed follows a special chart-of-accounts rule: account 8420 is used, while any negative difference exceeding a previously accumulated positive amount is charged to account 9620.

If an item’s economic substance changes and it becomes monetary instead of non-monetary, or vice versa, the new treatment is applied prospectively. Prior periods are not restated merely because of that reclassification.

Translating a foreign operation

An organization includes the foreign-currency assets and liabilities used for an operation abroad in its financial statements in soum terms. Monetary items are remeasured on transaction dates and at month-end; historical property, plant and equipment, intangible assets, equipment, capital investments, and inventories use the recognition-date rate.

Income and expenses of the foreign operation are translated at a weighted average rate: add each rate multiplied by the number of days for which it applied, then divide by the number of days in the period.

Example. In an assumed 30-day month, a rate of UZS 12,400 applies for 10 days and UZS 12,700 for 20 days. The average rate is (12,400 × 10 + 12,700 × 20) / 30 = UZS 12,600. Revenue of USD 50,000 from the foreign operation is translated as UZS 630,000,000.

When a foreign division is included in consolidated financial statements, the standard prescribes different translation bases: assets and liabilities use the period-end rate; equity uses the same rate except for current-year retained earnings; and income, expenses, and profit use the average rate.

Disclosures in the financial statements

The notes to the financial statements disclose five groups of information:

• exchange differences included in financial results;
• exchange differences classified as additional paid-in capital;
• amounts posted to other accounting accounts;
• the effect of a material exchange-rate change after the reporting date where omission could affect a statement user’s assessment and decisions;
• the Central Bank rate on the reporting date.

The calculation register should make it possible to reconstruct the foreign-currency amount, initial-recognition rate, previous remeasurement rate, current-date rate, and resulting difference. These data connect the primary document with the accounting entry and financial-statement figure.

Tax effects of exchange differences

Accounting classification and tax treatment are similar, but not identical. For corporate income tax, a positive difference enters aggregate income, a negative difference is an expense, and differences from remeasuring advances received or paid are excluded for tax (Article 320 of the Tax Code).

For turnover tax, remeasurement of foreign-currency accounts makes the net exchange difference the taxable item (Article 463 of the Tax Code). If negative differences exceed positive differences, the excess does not reduce the tax base.

This section addresses only exchange differences. The complete income and expense rules, rates, and reporting are covered separately: use the corporate income tax article for the general regime and the turnover tax article for the special regime.

Changes in 2025–2026

• Presidential Resolution No. PP-282 dated 15 September 2025 introduced an electronic register of public-interest entities from 2026. An organization entered in the register moves to IFRS accounting from 1 January of the following year and publishes IFRS statements with an audit report after the second year; the rule appears in PP-282 of 15 September 2025.
• For organizations that continue to use NSBU, the basic foreign-currency method remains in NSBU No. 22, effective since 1 January 2025: classification into monetary and non-monetary items, monthly remeasurement, and direct recognition of exchange differences.

Month-end closing checks

Closing foreign-currency accounts starts with a complete list of unsettled monetary items. The accountant should:

1. reconcile foreign-currency balances in the cash office and each bank statement;
2. reconcile receivables, payables, credits, loans, employee settlements, and dividends payable in their foreign-currency amounts;
3. separate non-refundable advances and other non-monetary items;
4. verify the initial-recognition date and rate for each new transaction;
5. remeasure monetary balances at the rate on the month’s final date;
6. compare the new measurement with the previous one and record the difference in account 9540 or 9620;
7. reconcile the accounting result with the separate corporate-income-tax or turnover-tax calculation;
8. prepare the note disclosures and retain the calculation register with the primary documents.

Liability arises not from an exchange loss itself, but from a breach of accounting rules. Failure to ensure accurate records and statements carries a fine for responsible officials of 1.320.000 to 3.080.000 BRVs, while a repeat offence within one year carries 3.080.000 to 4.400.000 BRVs; one BRV is the base calculation unit. These limits apply to an accounting-law breach (Article 175-1 of the Code of Administrative Liability).

Frequently asked questions

Which rate applies when foreign currency reaches a bank account?

Use the Central Bank rate on the date the funds are credited to the bank account. The appendix to NSBU No. 22 identifies that date as the date of the corresponding foreign-currency transaction. After initial recognition, the foreign-currency account balance remains a monetary item, so it is remeasured again on the last date of every reporting month and when it is later debited.

Is a foreign-currency advance remeasured every month?

A non-refundable advance for goods, work, or services is not remeasured because the organization will receive performance rather than a fixed amount of currency. If the advance must be refunded in cash, assess the actual substance of the claim or obligation. A refundable cash amount may be a monetary item and therefore subject to monthly remeasurement.

How is an exchange difference on a payable calculated?

Multiply the unchanged foreign-currency amount of the debt by the new rate and compare the result with its latest soum measurement. A rate increase raises the soum liability and produces a negative difference; a rate decrease reduces it and produces a positive difference. Calculate this at month-end and again on the payment date if the rate changes.

Can an exchange difference be deferred until the debt is paid?

No. The current NSBU No. 22 prohibits the accumulation method. The exchange difference on an unsettled monetary item enters financial results at monthly remeasurement even though the counterparty has not yet paid. Settlement produces a further difference between the latest measurement and the soum equivalent of the payment.

How does tax accounting differ from financial accounting?

Financial accounting records the current difference on monetary items as financial income or expense. For corporate income tax, a positive difference increases income and a negative difference is an expense, but advance remeasurement is excluded. Turnover tax includes only a positive net balance, and an excess negative difference does not reduce the base.