BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7. Growth of external government loans and their inefficient use are a concern, and Kazakhstan’s state debt has reached 22 trillion tenge ($47.6 billion), Member of Kazakh Parliament’s Senate Nurlan Bekenov said, Trend reports with via government's press service.
“According to the information of the Ministry of Finance, as of January 1, 2022, the state debt reached 22 trillion tenge ($47.6 billion), or 27.4 percent of GDP. The external debt of the Government, external debt guaranteed by the State and the quasi-public sector amounted to $37 billion, which is 67 percent of the assets of the National Fund and is approaching the maximum value,” Bekenov said.
“I believe that the National Fund cannot be considered only as a guaranteed reserve for repayment of loans,” Bekenov noted.
Today there are 52 external government loans totaling $112.2 billion, while the development was only 80 percent, the senator emphasized.
“Among the key factors in the increase in the country's external debt are inefficient use, lack of demand for borrowed money, cancellation of part of the loan, also attraction of money by quasi-state companies for non-productive purposes,” Bekenov added.
“Subsidiary of KazMunayGas JSC (KMG) attracted a loan for a period of three years in the amount of $300 million for the purpose of further distribution to shareholders in the form of dividends in 2017, in the presence of own funds. This loan was attracted to pay dividends. These are just some examples of inefficient planning and use of international loans,” the MP said.
Nurlan Bekenov announced a number of systemic measures that were developed during a meeting of senators with representatives of state authorities and the quasi-state sector on the effectiveness of external state loans, to improve the current situation, among them, the implementation of constant monitoring of the procurement process and contract management, improving the quality of projects under development to eliminate their further irrelevance.
“It is important to attract external loans through the prism of a critical analysis of current areas of financing, clear regulation of the cost of design estimates and prioritization of costs in all sectors of the economy,” Bekenov added.
