BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jun. 30
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Reduction of the shadow economy has allowed increasing revenue to the state budget by 1.5 trillion tenge ($3.7 billion) in 2019, Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin said, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the prime minister.
The measures for further reduction of a shadow economy were discussed during a government meeting chaired by Mamin.
It was noted that Kazakhstan has set the goal of bringing reducing shadow economy to below 20 percent of GDP by 2025.
As a result of the measures taken, the share of the shadow economy in the country decreased from 27 percent to 23.6 percent of GDP as of the end of 2019, which led to significant increase in the budget revenues.
“Constant work is underway to improve the legislative framework by encouraging the involvement of shadow activities in legal turnover, and improving customs and tax administration,” Mamin said.
To create convenient conditions for the business and ensure the transparency of the of goods movement from import or manufacturing to retail, complex information systems were introduced. To reduce the number of inspections and contacts with the business, as well as to eliminate the ‘human factor’ in the appointment of inspections, the ‘Risk Management System’ was launched.
During the meeting, Mamin asked to make proposals to eliminate illegal export and import currency transactions, to continue work on improving the digitalization of services, further integrating information systems, introduce goods traceability across Kazakhstan, as well as to consider the possibility of making changes and additions to the current legislation on payments and payment systems aimed at mandatory identification of owners of electronic money.
The prime minister also instructed to continue work on economic incentives for business to leave the shadow sector by improving state support measures, reducing excessive requirements, increasing the availability of financing, reducing administrative barriers, and establishing clearly administered taxation.
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