The experts have discussed the measures to reduce the level of the shadow economy in Kazakhstan at a meeting of the Council for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights and Anti-Corruption of the Atameken NCE RK.

According to statistics, the share of the shadow economy in Kazakhstan is decreasing every year. However, the question remains: why does business hide its assets and activities from tax authorities?

"The leading position in the non-observed economy is in the area of trade. Over the past three years, its share in GDP has ranged from 6 to 9%, which amounts to 5.2 trillion tenge," Pavel Kazantsev, a member of the Mazhilis of the Parliament, said.

According to the speaker, there are several reasons for a business to move into the shadows. First, the government's support is extremely weak. The second is the lack of a strategy for developing domestic trade.

"Some akimats of the regions are trying to support trade organizations, and there are the regions that do not provide assistance, and in some cases even encourage them to work illegally by taking away trade places. There is the1000 Street Vendors programme is being implemented. Social entrepreneurship corporations provide land plots for trade. That's a great idea! But in most cases, they provide the land that has no commercial interest: in the vacant lot, on the outskirts or in the industrial zone," Pavel Kazantsev said.

As a solution, he stressed the need to create an effective state strategy of financial and non-financial support of retail trade. According to him, the trade industry should be included in the list of priority sectors of the economy to push businesses out of the shadows.

In addition, meetings with entrepreneurs have shown that the reasons for leaving the shadows are imperfect legislation, expensive bureaucratic procedures, and deficiencies in the tax and banking system. According to the information of the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the level of the shadow economy by 2019 increased to 29.8%, while on behalf of Elbasy its share should be reduced by 40% within three years.

"We have revised the methodology for international standards, I must say that in three years of dense work the government agencies will be able to reduce the shadow turnover by 40%. We have already approved a plan to combat the shadow economy. Currently, we are assessing the non-observed sector of the economy in 6 categories, for example, deliberately unregistered activities or businesses engaged in illegal activities," Gulnara Kerimkhanova, deputy chairman of the Statistics Committee of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said.

In turn, the State Revenue Committee of the MF RK shared its experience in terms of reducing the shadow turnover. In particular, one of the methods will be the introduction of online cash registers, tracking the product from sender to buyer. Also, the government agency is considering the possibility of charging the cache back to buyers who reported an offense, which will reduce the number of checks and eliminate the bureaucratic component between the owner and the representative of the government agency.

Deputy chairman of the Board of the Atameken NCE RK Rustam Zhursunov stressed that the entrepreneur does not give bribes to the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur gives bribes for services, including procurement.

"The amount of 3.6 trillion tenge is purchases, where 75% of them are non-competitive. Accordingly, the difference between competitive and non-competitive for the same goods is 34%. They don't start stealing when a tender is being held, but when they make a budget. In order to spend the state budget, we ask you to introduce a procedure to check the price so that the difference in the purchase of the same chair does not reach 300%," Rustam Zhursunov suggested.

Starting from January 1, 2020, the work on the patent will be abolished, which will cause stress to more than 100 thousand entrepreneurs.

"Six months ago, we went to a meeting, realizing that we had to leave the patent, but there was a counterclaim to the Ministry to improve the tax regime on a simplified declaration, which was not done. It is wrong to levy taxes on turnover because the lion's share of turnover is borrowed funds," Rustam Zhursunov said.

Summing up, Chairman of the Council Kairbek Suleimenov stressed the need to radically revise the state policy of financial and non-financial support to the retail trade, aimed at promoting development based on the partnership between the state and business.

 "Today, we see that the support of trade activities stipulated by the Law "On Regulation of Trade Activity" is not implemented by the state. We need to take a careful approach to its revision. It is also necessary to approach the issue of cashless settlement and, in particular, cache back carefully and without rush," Kairbek Suleimenov said.