Voting phase begins for season 2 of "Initiative Budget"

The voting process for the second season of the "Initiative Budget" for 2026 has begun in Uzbekistan. The Ministry of Economy and Finance reported this.

Voting will last until 23:59 on August 31. The winning projects will be announced on September 1 - Independence Day.

Starting from the 2026 season, the maximum value for construction and renovation projects has been set at 1,648 million soums (4,000 times the MFA), and for equipment projects at 824 million soums (2,000 times the MFA).

As an exception, the practice of giving a break will not be applied in districts (cities) with 15 or fewer makhallas. Citizens will be given the opportunity to finance projects on a partnership basis.

Deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis will be given the right to additionally declare one non-winning project in their districts as the winner.

In December 2025, changes were made to the "Initiative Budget" procedure by a resolution of the Senate Council. Now projects must collect at least 50 votes to proceed to the next stages. The cost of equipment projects has been limited, and the procedure for identifying additional winners and financing on a partnership basis has been established.

We remind you that in 2026, it is planned to allocate 6 trillion soums for this program. Of this, 496 billion soums will be allocated to the implementation of the practice of deputy initiatives, and 506 billion soums will be allocated to the implementation of cooperation projects between the population and the state in the form of "joint financing".

By presidential decree, starting in 2026, the practice of declaring two non-winning projects (one per season) as winners at the initiative of deputies has been introduced. Approximately 3.3 billion soums will be allocated to each deputy to finance non-winning projects.

With the same document, from February 1, the practice of financing certain projects in the "Initiative Budget" on a partnership basis between the population and the state was introduced. In this case, when 50 percent of the cost of projects is voluntarily financed by the population, the projects are recognized as winners, and the remaining 50 percent is financed from the republican budget.