The Government will conduct regular negotiation with business community and decide problematic issues

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev said during the meeting with the members of the Regional Council of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" of the Aktobe region, in which the Chairman of the Presidium of NCE RK "Atameken" Timur Kulibayev took part.

According to the Chairman of the Board of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of RK "Atameken" Ablay Myrzakhmetov, the Aktobe region has a good indicator of the number of operating businesses. Growth is observed annually. As for the problematic issues of the business community, they are akin to the entrepreneurs of all regions. These are: the sale of goods, access to procurement, financing and a number of other factors constraining the development of entrepreneurship.

As it was noted by the chairman of the Regional Council, the general director of the group of companies Altyn Kuran, Islambek Salzhanov, today the most pressing problems of the business of the Aktobe region are issues of availability of funds, shrinking of the market, reduction of construction volumes due to a reduction in the volume of budget investments and subsoil users' investments, reduction of enterprises’s funds and the purchasing power of the population. "This group of factors significantly affects the full development of the business sector and the increase of business activity in the region. They require an early response and the adoption of comprehensive measures to resolve them", - said Islambek Salzhanov.

It should be noted that this is the first meeting in this format between the members of the Regional Council with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Aktobe region. Therefore, the members of the Regional Council did not miss the chance to express directly a number of issues of concern to business. For example, the head of LLP "Dastan", a member of the Regional Council Askhat Aitzhanov touched upon the topic of pseudo-entrepreneurship. "In the course of the pre-trial investigation of criminal cases on the basis of a crime of pseudo-entrepreneurship not all the actual circumstances of the case are studied, that is, the relationship between counterparties. As a result, conscientious entrepreneurs, whose relationships are not investigated, automatically fall into the resolution on the termination of the criminal case, terminated on non-rehabilitating grounds, the indictment and the verdict of the court. Upon entry into legal force of these procedural documents, entrepreneurs bear unreasonable expenses for payment of assessed taxes, administrative fines and penalties. Under these difficult conditions, many enterprises are not in a position to reimburse to the budget specified sanctions taxes, fines and penalties", - said the entrepreneur.

The members of the Regional Council suggest that bona fide entrepreneurs who have had relations with pseudo-enterprises and who have already been subjected to compulsory measures such as collection of additional taxes, fines and penalties on the decisions of courts and law enforcement agencies that have entered into force, we suggest considering the possibility of applying amnesty to those entrepreneurs, who will prove the purity and reality of their transactions.

In addition, until the end of 2016, it was proposed to decriminalize Article 215 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in view of its ineffectiveness. Since pseudo-entrepreneurship includes signs of other crimes - illegal actions to obtain loans, tax exemptions, the extraction of property benefits, etc. In fact, pseudo-entrepreneurship is just one way of committing other crimes. In this connection, we consider it necessary to exclude the article on pseudo business or to change its composition, leaving only the mere fact of creating a false organization, stated Askhat Aitzhanov.

In turn, the founder of LLP "Aktep", a member of the Regional Council Nurlan Sagnalin raised the problem of increased number of inspections, which are conducted by state bodies. The analysis shows that there was an increase in the number of inspections in the Aktyubinsk regions. There are 19 control agencies. The number of inspections increase to 2.2 folds in 2016 (2015 - 3,072 inspections, 2016 - 6,625 inspections). "We believe that the norms stipulated in Article 132 of the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan make it possible to increase inspections, allowing them to conduct inspections on an object basis", - said the entrepreneur.

That is, each branch of a legal entity is inspected by the same state body with a period of 30 days. As a result, 6-9 inspections are appointed to all branches of the company for a period of up to 9 months, depending on the number of branches. "In this regard, we consider it advisable to consider the possibility of introducing amendments to Article 132 of the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which excludes the object principle of appointing and conducting inspections by supervision state bodies. These changes will lead to a significant reduction in the time for inspections. This system of inspections existed in the ex-Code", - concluded Nurlan Sagnalin.

A single land tax is another issue of agribusiness. Chairman of the Association of Milk and Dairy Producers of the Aktyubinsk Region, a member of the Regional Council Marat Itegulov noted that currently farmers of the Aktyubinsk region are experiencing problems associated with "Unified Land Tax".

"The problem is that in accordance with Article 439 of the Tax Code, the Aktobe region is referred to as the second territorial zone, that is, the total area of farmers should not exceed 3,500 hectares. And in case of excess, the generally established tax regime is automatically applied - 100% taxation", - he said.

Meanwhile, in 7 out of 12 districts of the Aktyubinsk region (Shalkar, Baigan, Irgiz, Aitekebi, Mugalzharsky, Temirsky, Wilsky), which occupy 84% of the territory of the region, the land is used for animal husbandry, where the bonitet score does not exceed 14. According to natural and climatic features Aktobe region as well as Almaty, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda, South-Kazakhstan, Atyrau, Mangistau region is divided into steppe and desert natural areas. The load per pasture per head of farm animals in the Aktyubinsk region ranges from 3 to 34 hectares. Thus, a small farm with about 150 heads of cattle, 300 sheep and 30 horses requires at least 4,000 hectares of pastures for rational use of farmland, not counting hayfields. In this regard, it is proposed to amend Article 439 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and include the Aktobe region in 1, 2 and 3 territorial zones.

The issues of PPP were touched upon by the Chairman of the Board of the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, member of the Regional Council Talgat Khamitov. "One of the good measures to support business is Roadmap of Business-2020, which subsidizes interest rates on loans to STB. But, under the terms of the program, subsidies for PPP projects are terminated from the moment of its operation by another person", - he noted.
For example, under the PPP contract, a building was built and handed over for 5 years to the state for a physical and mathematical school with a gym, a canteen and a boarding school (formerly the physical and mathematical school was located in an adapted building of a former kindergarten, without a gym). At present, the private partner is deprived of the opportunity to receive the aforementioned state support measure due to the established obligations for the operation of the PPP project by the entrepreneur himself. "We propose to exclude the established restrictions for projects implemented within the framework of PPP", - said Talgat Khamitov.

Representatives of business dealing with the retail sale of liquefied gas complained on pressure from the state authorities on issues related to the sale of fuel. At the same time, they constantly accuse entrepreneurs of increasing gas prices, application of administrative measures. Now they accuse entrepreneurs of creating an artificial fuel shortage and aroused excitement among the population. However, everything is not the way it looks like, believe the members of the Regional Council.

The marginal price of wholesale sales for liquefied gas by the order of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan #301 dated by 5^th of July 2016 was increased from the previous 11,033.91 KZT to 23,106.45 KZT without VAT, that is, the government price appreciation of the wholesale price occurred by 209.4%. As a result, at the gas stations of the city there was a reasonable increase in the retail price. However, during the investigation, these circumstances were not taken into account at all by both the authorized body and the courts. And as a result, 16 companies were brought to justice. The actual gas demand in the region is about 7000 tons, while the quota allocates 5,200 tons of gas per month.

In addition, the emergence of long queues at gas stations is due to tightening of control by the Gask administration of the region, according to the instructions of which, as of the beginning of March, the operation of 28 gas filling stations of mobile modular type stopped. However, the representatives of GASK consider that block mobile gas filling plants are reffered to construction and installation works and, accordingly, it is required to receive an architectural and planning task, to develop a project, to undergo expert examination of the project, etc. At the same time, such practice is observed only in the Aktyubinsk region. It is proposed to consider the issue of increasing the quota for the Aktyubinsk region to 7200 tons per month. The problems related to public procurement, transport, VAT refund were also touched upon.

All these issues are known to us, stated the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev. "Now conditions are being created that, until the end of this year, all the regulatory and legislative base of the country will be adjusted, make changes, which in many ways contribute to removing a number of problematic issues of entrepreneurship. Undoubtedly, we see that the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" today is one of the most powerful structures that influences decision-making processes related to development and business support issues. The Government today can and is ready to listen to the opinion of Atameken, because you are talking for all entrepreneurs together, as well as Ministries”, - said the head of the Cabinet.

A budding rural entrepreneur Sulushash Kadyrova gave a vivid example of real affairs of NCE. She took part in a pilot project to teach rural residents the basics of starting and doing business "Bastau Business". Two-month courses in 2016 gave results. In addition to the certificate, a resident of the Temir district, previously not engaged in business, successfully defended her project. With the assistance of the regional branch of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs and the akimat, she obtained access to financing. As a result, she opened a greenhouse in the village for 2 million tenge. As it turned out, the case is very necessary in this region. The niche is still empty. The entrepreneur thanked for this project and the opportunity to start its own business.