At a joint sitting of the houses of Parliament, the reports of the government and the Accounting Committee on execution of the national budget in 2013 were approved, head of the Kazakh Accounting Committee Kozy-Korpesh Dzhanburchin said at a June 20 Central Communications Service (CCS) media briefing. “The reports were considered at the sitting of the houses of Parliament, their committees and working groups,” said the head of the committee. During the briefing, he also noted that in 2013, the Accounting Committee held 26 events to control the process. Thus, 68 recommendations and 309 instructions have been prepared and sent by the committee, which were executed at a rate of 98 and 80 percent, respectively. The head of the committee also noted that the government did great work on execution of the budget. “As a result of the work on the execution and control of the budget in 2013, we have developed recommendations for the government. They are aimed at improving the quality of the taxation and customs administration and increasing the effectiveness of the programme documents and investment projects,” Dzhanburchin said. “Taking into account our approaches, the recommendations of the committee were accepted by the government for implementation. We will try to help find the best solutions for the optimal execution of the budget.”
A reduction of Kazakh tax audits by 25 percent has resulted in an economic effect worth 136 billion tenge (US$741 million), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Bakhyt Sultanov said at a June 20 joint meeting of Parliament. “Implementation of warnings instead of fines, together with the development of the risk management system, has reduced tax audits by 4,000, or 25 percent. At the same time, the return, or tax collection, increased by 136 billion tenge (US$741 million), or 46 percent,” Sultanov stated. He also noted a positive effect of the modernisation of tax and customs information systems. “Today, we get 91 percent of tax accounts in electronic form,” the minister said. According to Sultanov, the plan for the Kazakh national budget revenues in 2013 was executed by 100.6 percent. Budget revenues amounted to 5.272 trillion tenge (US$28.7 billion), which is 7.8 percent or 383 billion tenge (US$2.1 billion) more in comparison with 2012. Expenditures amounted to 5.991 trillion (US$32.6 billion) or 99.3 percent of the plan. Compared with 2012, expenditures increased by 195 billion tenge (US$1.1 billion). The budget deficit amounted to 718 billion tenge (US$3.9 billion). “The government debt is close to 13 percent of GDP, which is a safe level. According to the public debt index, Kazakhstan occupies 14th position out of 148 countries,” Sultanov concluded.
In 2013, government revenue from non-oil sector enterprises in the form of corporate tax increased by 14 percent, which exceeds the nominal growth of the economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Bakhyt Sultanov said June 20 while providing the report on the 2013 national budget execution.He noted that taxes received from the companies involved in the industrialisation programme increased by 11 percent in 2013. “Entrepreneurs who have received subsidies under the Business Roadmap paid 88 billion tenge (US$479.5 million) in taxes. Thanks to the subsidies of 28 billion tenge (US$152.5 million), more than 2,000 entrepreneurs represent a real potential for future earnings in the economy,” the deputy prime minister said. In addition, revenues from special economic zones (SEZ) increased by 35 percent last year, Sultanov added.
