BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 28. Kazakhstan's budget deficit in the first quarter of the year reached 318 billion Kazakh tenge ($713.1 million), a substantial increase compared to the 188 billion Kazakh tenge surplus ($421.5 million) recorded during the same period last year, Trend reports.
As the World Bank noted, on the revenue front, the budget has faced a decline of 2.8 percent year-on-year, amounting to 4.6 trillion Kazakh tenge ($10.3 billion) in the first quarter of the year. This decrease can be primarily attributed to lower oil-related revenues, which have suffered from the recent fall in oil prices.
However, considering real terms, non-oil revenues from corporate income and value-added tax (VAT) showed a mixed performance. While corporate income tax showed a 1.3 percent decline, VAT experienced a notable 11.4 percent year-on-year increase in collection. Together, these two taxes contribute to nearly two-thirds of non-oil revenue.
In contrast to the revenue situation, budget spending has experienced a substantial rise, 5 trillion Kazakh tenge ($11.2 billion). This figure represents an 8.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The expenditure breakdown by function reveals that the surge in spending was primarily driven by significant investments in education, which saw a remarkable 16 percent increase. Additionally, higher allocations for utility and engineering infrastructure (+13.4 percent), as well as transport and communication (+20.6 percent), contributed to the overall rise in expenditure.
