GOVERNMENT: Land Reform Commission launched in Kazakhstan

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM Kazakh Government's Land Reform Commission has started its work this week. The Commission consists of parliament deputies, members of the Cabinet, heads of all political parties, representatives of the agrarian sector, scholars and civil activists.

The share of social expenses in the national budget's structure keeps rising.

First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev has announced the results of the first week of the Land Reform Commission's work.
"The headquarters and Secretariat of the Commission have been opened at the Ministry of Agriculture. The Secretariat will accumulate all the propositions submitted by members of the Commission and by the regions. A shorthand report of the first meeting of the commission will be handed out to its members on Saturday," he said today at a briefing at the office of the Central Communications Service.
According to him, more than 700 phone calls have been received since Monday by the special call centre and over 300 propositions have been submitted via jerturaly.kz website. Sagintayev assured that all the ideas will be properly considered and discussed. Public councils at the akimats, Nur Otan Party with all its regional affiliates and other political parties registered in Kazakhstan are involved in this work.
The second meeting of the Land Reform Commission scheduled for Saturday, May 21, will discuss the issue of selling the land parcels to Kazakhstanis. First Vice Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev has said it today at the press conference held in the office of the Central Communication Services in Astana.
As Sagintayev noted, the Commission will discuss what lands will be sold to Kazakhstanis, how this procedure will be carried out and who will determine these land parcels. Meanwhile, the 1st Vice PM stressed that the current legislation prohibits sale of lands to foreign nationals.
"The meeting will focus on the whole range of issues related to the sale of lands to Kazakhstanis. We plan to have several meetings in Astana. After three or four discussions, we will leave for the regions for discussing this issue with the members of public councils and public organizations. The final decision will be submitted for the consideration of the Parliament," said Sagintayev.

In turn, Minister of Agriculture Askar Myrzakhmetov told that as per the Decree of the President of Kazakhstan, it was decided to transfer the responsibility for land issues from the Ministry of National Economy to the Ministry of Agriculture.

"In this regard, the decision on establishment of the committee for land management of the Ministry of Agriculture was made at the sitting of the Government on Tuesday. 47 employees of the Ministry of National Economy will be transferred to the newly established committee of the Ministry of Agriculture," A. Myrzakhmetov said.

According to him, the call center of the committee for land reform received about 90% of all calls about the issues regarding private land ownership.

At the Europe Regional Heads of Customs Conference of the World Customs Organization held in Astana, B. Sagintayev informed that the documents on construction of new customs processing zones were being prepared now.

Representing a report on execution of the national budget for 2015 Minister of Finance Bakhyt Sultanov noted that the execution of the budget funds was at a high level - 99.8 percent. The revenue target for 2015 is overfulfilled by 330 billion tenge mostly thanks to two taxes, which are the corporate tax and export customs duty.

B. Sultanov noted that the share of social expenditures in the structure of the budget increased up to 39.4 % in 2015.

"The expenditures of the national budget made 7 trillion 163 billion tenge. However, the social sphere remains to be the priority. The increase of the budget is mainly aimed at increasing social payments. This share in the structure of the budget increased up to 39.4 perecent and made 2.8 trillion tenge," B. Sultanov noted.

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