ASTANA – Starting in 2026, Kazakhstan will begin the phased transition of all government budgets to the digital tenge. It is not just another payment tool – it is a new way to make money smart.
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The idea is simple yet powerful: money that serves its purpose. If funds are allocated for road construction, they can only be spent on concrete, fuel, or labor. No diversions, no gray areas. Once the work is done and the supplier is paid, the funds become ordinary money again.
This approach has already been tested in projects such as the Dostyk–Moiynty railway and in agricultural subsidies. The results are impressive: transparent, traceable, and efficient spending, reported Tengenomika on Oct. 7.
Binur Zhalenov, head of Digital Transformation and advisor to the chairman of the National Bank, said that the President of Kazakhstan had instructed authorities to scale up the use of the digital tenge across all levels of government, from ministries to state holdings.
“This is not just about a new form of money. It is about building a new architecture of public finance — transparent, targeted, and programmable,” he said.
He explained that the digital tenge’s main strength lies in programmability — the ability to embed spending conditions directly into each tenge. It turns money from a passive payment tool into an active instrument of economic management. This programmability also helps mitigate risks of corruption, as every transaction can be tracked, verified, and automatically audited.
Payments for school meals or medical services, for instance, will only be made after confirmation of service in the Social Wallet system. When purchasing a car, the transaction will occur only after the vehicle is re-registered in the database through the Secure Transaction system. Even the collection of value-added tax is becoming more efficient through the Digital VAT system, where taxes are automatically marked at the time of payment, reducing refund times almost fivefold.
Around 100 use cases are already being implemented, from public procurement and National Fund infrastructure projects to targeted agricultural loans.
The Ministry of Finance is also combining artificial intelligence with the digital tenge to tackle the shadow economy. According to Minister Madi Takiyev, AI helps detect tax evasion schemes and create digital taxpayer profiles.
“Biometric verification has already blocked fake invoices worth more than 33 billion tenge (US$60.9 million). Automated control systems like E-Tamga have processed 250 million invoices and 500 million payments — adding up to nearly 100 billion tenge (US$184.7 million) in annual revenue impact,” he said.
During an Oct. 7 government meeting, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank to ensure the use of the digital tenge within national and local budgets, as well as the budgets of state-owned holdings, and requested that they report on the results by Feb. 1 of next year. He emphasized that digital projects in Kazakhstan have proven their effectiveness and should now be scaled up nationwide.
Pilot projects are underway across the country: from road and railway construction to agricultural subsidies and VAT refunds. The next stage involves integrating government information systems and automating the monitoring of targeted spending, ensuring that every digital tenge is used exactly as intended.
Earlier this year, in an interview with The Astana Times, Zhalenov emphasized that the digital tenge is not a panacea against corruption. Its effectiveness depends on the digital maturity of institutions and the quality of data they operate with. For this reason, the National Bank is working closely with ministries and agencies where the level of digitalization determines the full potential of this new financial instrument.
