Kazakhstan's PM instructs to revise commission fees of monopoly operators, intermediaries

By Trend

Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov gave a number of instructions following the Government meeting, Trend reports via Kazinform.

"President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined the key priorities for the country's socio-economic development for the current year. One of the main tasks of the Government is to increase the income of the population and create new jobs," Smailov said.

The head of the Cabinet of Ministers stressed that the first heads of state bodies need to focus on solving the following issues.

"In the economic direction, the president gave a number of instructions to reform budget planning. In order to optimize and increase the efficiency of planning, it’s necessary to speed up work on the digitalization of budget processes,” he noted. “The Ministry of Finance needs to take specific measures by March 1 of this year to deeply digitalize budget planning processes.”

The prime minister added that the president instructed to abandon the implementation of inefficient and unprofitable projects, as well as to complete the development of a methodology for assessing the effectiveness and socio-economic impact of budget funds, which is being worked on by the ministries of finance and national economy.

"In this regard, the Ministry of Finance, together with the Agency for Strategic Planning and the Accounts Committee, must submit a draft methodology to the Government by April 1 of this year," Smailov said.

Besides, according to him, the head of state was instructed to reformat the work of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) with a priority on protecting and supporting small businesses.

"Relevant work has been already launched. It’s important to ensure comprehensive and effective interaction between Atameken NCE and business in the format set by the head of state," Smailov explained.

The prime minister also highlighted the issue of analyzing tariffs and commission fees charged by various monopoly operators and intermediaries, as well as working out decisions on their revision or cancellation.

"In this regard, the Ministry of National Economy, together with the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition and Atameken NCE, must submit the results of the analysis and specific proposals on resolving this issue to the Government within a month. The head of state once again dwelled on the need to increase budget revenues," he further said. "To date, proposals have already been developed to revise the rates of tax on the extraction of minerals in the mining sector, excises for producers of petrochemicals, benefits on dividends for subsoil users and the procedure for transfer pricing."

"The ministries of national economy and finance need to launch awareness raising work with the public and businesses on these proposals and ensure their accelerated legislative consolidation," concluded Smailov.