Members of the "Ak Zhol" faction in Kazakhstan have submitted a request to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Nurlan Baybazarov on March 6, 2024, with further proposals regarding the monitoring of mobile transfers by Kazakh citizens. The request addresses concerns over the new measures for total control by tax authorities over mobile payments, which have led to a decrease of 30% in mobile transactions since the beginning of the year, according to data from the National Bank.
The faction expressed worries about the impact of these measures on the development of digitalization and financial technologies, as well as the erosion of trust in tax policies. They highlighted the lack of clarity in the government's explanations regarding the monitoring thresholds, which currently include all transactions from 100 individuals or more exceeding a total of 255,000 tenge per month, regardless of the transaction amounts.
Comparing the Kazakh proposal to Russia's approach, where monitoring targets individuals receiving over 30 transfers per day, each exceeding 1,000 rubles, with a total monthly sum exceeding 1 million rubles, the MPs suggest setting a lower threshold for monitored payments in Kazakhstan, starting from 3,000 to 5,000 tenge. They argue that the current threshold of 255,000 tenge is insufficient, as it does not account for the profitability of small businesses.
In response to these concerns, the "Ak Zhol" party proposes raising the monitoring threshold to payments starting from 1.5 million tenge to alleviate the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Additionally, they recommend introducing automatic retail tax collection on monitored mobile payments to simplify tax compliance for entrepreneurs, freeing them from extensive accounting requirements.
By implementing these adjustments, the MPs aim to ensure that the budget continues to receive payments seamlessly while reducing unnecessary bureaucratic procedures for businesses. This proposal comes in light of the potential implications of the current monitoring thresholds on mobile payments, as explained by Minister Nurlan Baybazarov.
