Tanlo data · Updated: October 26, 2026 · 9 min read

Bid deposits in Uzbekistan tenders: how much is frozen and when

A bid deposit (zakalat) in Uzbek public procurement is money the platform freezes on your personal account (the participant's account with the exchange operator) when you submit a bid. On 26 October 2026, Tanlo checked all 618 best-offer selections and tenders open on xarid.uzex.uz. For half of the lots priced in UZS, the deposit is below 4,200,000 UZS. But for one in eight it exceeds 100,000,000. For most companies the amount itself is manageable. The real problems are elsewhere: the money can stay locked for months, and in two situations the deposit is forfeited entirely.

What a bid deposit is and who decides whether it is required

Under Law ZRU-684 "On Public Procurement", the bid deposit is a form of bid security. It assures the buyer that the winner will sign the contract and, if the tender documents say so, that it will also perform it. The procurement commission chooses the form: a deposit, a pledge or a bank guarantee (Art. 19, 39). In practice it is almost always a deposit: the platform blocks the money on your personal account, and it is not transferred to the buyer. While the deposit is blocked, you cannot use those funds.

Do not confuse the bid deposit with contract performance security. The buyer may require that separately — after you win and before signing (Art. 63). It is an additional sum or guarantee; check the lot documents to see whether it applies.

Together with the deposit, the platform reserves the operator's fee. It is charged only to the winner — no more than 0.15% of the deal value and no more than 6,160,000 UZS (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 476). For losing bidders the reserve is released together with the deposit. A bid is accepted only if the account holds enough to cover both amounts.

How much: the rules for each procedure

The percentages are set by the Regulation on Public Procurement Procedures (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 276, paras. 14–15):

In the e-shop and at auctions the percentage is fixed. In selections and tenders the commission sets it, so the spread is wide. Hayot Birja (xt-xarid.uz) follows the same rules.

What the data shows

We collected the lot pages of all open selections (549) and tenders (69) on xarid.uzex.uz:

What this means in money — for 558 UZS-denominated lots with a stated starting price:

• no deposit — 78 lots;
• up to 1,000,000 UZS — 93;
• 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 — 121;
• 5,000,000 to 20,000,000 — 119;
• 20,000,000 to 100,000,000 — 76;
• over 100,000,000 — 71.

Counting only lots that do require a deposit, the typical amount (the median: half are lower, half higher) is 6,885,000 UZS. The heaviest are large purchases by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In a tender by a Ministry of Health buyer with a starting price of 113,873,597,794 UZS, the 5% deposit comes to as much as 5,693,679,890 UZS.

The picture on Hayot Birja is similar. Selections most often carry 3% (82 of 142), and 20 have no deposit. At auctions the deposit is 3% of the starting price, and lots there are small: the typical amount is 264,000 UZS. In a request for proposals (a simplified competitive procedure), according to the platform's instructions, only the fee is blocked from participants; none of the 58 open lot pages specified a deposit.

When the money is released

This is the main thing to check before you bid. Timelines under Regulation No. 276 (paras. 13, 15, 31, 32, 34):

What this means in days. If you lose, the money is frozen from bid submission until the winner is announced: the bidding period plus the evaluation time — in a tender that can take several weeks. If you win a selection or tender, add the time until the contract is signed. If the deposit is held "until completion of work", add the entire contract term.

Release does not mean a refund to your bank: the money stays on the personal account until you submit a withdrawal order (see below).

How you can lose the deposit

1. The winner refuses to sign the contract. The deposit is not returned — the operator transfers it to the buyer (ZRU-684, Art. 63 and 70; Regulation No. 276, para. 15). The company is added to the Unified Register of Unscrupulous Contractors (the public procurement blacklist) and is barred from public procurement for two years (Art. 48).

2. The contract is not performed, where the deposit is held until delivery is complete — in the e-shop, at auctions and in lots with the "after completion of work" mode. Following a decision of the Complaints Commission or a court, the deposit is transferred to the buyer (Regulation No. 276, paras. 34–35). According to the exchange's answers, if the contract is terminated with a penalty against the supplier, the deposit goes to the buyer as that penalty. Non-performance can also lead to inclusion in the register.

Changed your mind? Withdraw your bid before the bidding period closes: the law expressly guarantees the return of the security in exactly this case (Art. 39). After the deadline your bid is binding: if you come first, you will have to sign the contract. If you disagree with the results, here is how to file a complaint.

Suppliers are protected too: a corporate buyer (a state-owned enterprise) in the e-shop and at auctions also posts a deposit. If it fails to pay under the contract on time, its deposit is transferred to the supplier within one business day (Regulation No. 276, paras. 8, 25). Budget-funded organisations do not post a deposit.

Additional deposit for a low price

The e-shop and auctions have an anti-dumping rule (Regulation No. 276, paras. 43 and 54). If you cut the price by 20% or more, you must post an additional deposit equal to the full difference between the starting (or buyer-selected) price and yours. Lot worth 100,000,000, you offer 75,000,000 — the additional deposit is 25,000,000 UZS. The cap:

• for lots up to 1,100,000,000 UZS (2,500 BRV — base calculation amounts, the statutory unit used for fees and thresholds) — no more than 44,000,000 UZS;
• for larger lots — no more than 440,000,000 UZS.

If this amount is not on the account, the system rejects the offer automatically. The Regulation contains no such rule for selections and tenders.

Can you provide a bank guarantee instead of a deposit

The law allows a guarantee or a pledge if the procurement commission has set that form (ZRU-684, Art. 19, 39). On xarid.uzex.uz a bank guarantee is marked on the pages of 36 out of 618 lots (about 6%), but 35 of them also require a cash deposit at the same time. So before bidding, ask the buyer in writing whether it will accept a guarantee instead of cash: under Art. 39 it must reply within 2 business days. Without such a reply, assume you will need the money on the account. And remember that the bank will charge its own fee for the guarantee.

How to top up the account and withdraw money

xarid.uzex.uz. The operator is JSC "Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange" (UzEx, TIN 200933985). Pay only into the account designated for participants in electronic public procurement: the exchange has other accounts with similar numbers. In its answers for participants, the exchange lists secondary account 20208000900600257053 at JSCB "Trastbank" (bank code MFO 00491); before every payment, verify it in the FAQ section on uzex.uz and in the footer of xarid.uzex.uz. The payment purpose recommended by the exchange: «O'zb. Res. VMning 20.05.2022-yildagi 276-sonli Qarori bilan tasdiqlangan Nizomga asosan davlat xaridlari elektron savdolarida ishtirok etish uchun avans to'lovi o'tkazilmoqda» ("advance payment for participation in electronic public procurement under the Regulation approved by CM Resolution No. 276 of 20.05.2022"). Released funds can be kept for future bidding or, on your order, returned to your bank account (Regulation No. 276, para. 37).

xt-xarid.uz (Hayot Birja). A payment order template with the bank details is in your account dashboard under "Clearing" → "How to top up the account?". Withdrawals are made there too: "Withdraw funds" → amount and your bank account → signature with the company's e-signature (E-IMZO). More details in our guide to xt-xarid.uz.

We did not find any official crediting time for payments on either platform. Top up the account at least 1–2 business days before the deadline, not on the last evening.

How much to keep on account: an example

The typical starting price of a UZS-denominated selection or tender on xarid.uzex.uz is 286,700,000 UZS. With a 3% deposit, the account must hold:

• deposit — 8,601,000 UZS;
• 0.15% fee reserve — 430,050 UZS;
• total — about 9,000,000 UZS per bid.

This is an upper estimate: in a selection the platform may calculate the percentage from your offer price rather than the starting price. Submitting five bids at once? Multiply by five: while bidding is under way, money is frozen for each of them. We cover the other costs in "How much it costs to take part in public procurement".

Pre-bid checklist

1. Open the lot page: the deposit percentage and release mode — "after the contract" or "after completion of work".
2. Check the tender documents for any contract performance security requirement on top of that.
3. Calculate the deposit plus the fee, and make sure your working capital is enough if you win several lots at once.
4. Cutting the price sharply in the e-shop or at an auction? Add the additional deposit.
5. Top up 1–2 business days before the deadline, and only into the participants' account.
6. Bid only if the goods and the price are real: walking away from the contract costs you both the deposit and two years on the register.

Tanlo shows the deposit percentage right on the tender page, and in search you can filter lots by value so the deposit fits your working capital.

How we calculated

On 26 October 2026, Tanlo pulled the full lot pages of all 618 open selections and tenders from xarid.uzex.uz: deposit percentage, bank guarantee flag and release mode. This is a one-day snapshot; the e-shop and auctions are not included — the deposit there is fixed. Deposit amounts are our estimate: percentage × starting price, only for 558 UZS-denominated lots (50 lots in foreign currency and 6 lots without a starting price were excluded); the amount actually blocked may be lower. For Hayot Birja, the pages of 355 open procedures were checked on the same day.

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