Parliament OKs govt's 2016 national budget report

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The Kazakh Parliament has approved the 2016 reports on execution of the republican budget made by the Government and the Accounts Committee in a joint session, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"I would like to express my gratitude for supporting the Government Report on execution of the 2016 republican budget. Your questions and proposals cover all sectors of the economy; all the comments and questions are relevant. And we will carefully study and take them into account in our future work. The Government is carrying out additional assignments given by the Head of State in the Astana Economic Forum final panel session. We need to close the year with 4pct growth. We need to do some certain work for this purpose, and, I think we will accomplish it with your support," Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev said, addressing the parliamentarians.

Kazakh Finance Minister Bakhyt Sultanov advised in his report that the revenues of the 2016 budget reached KZT 7.7 trillion, which is KZT1.5tn higher than in 2015. This includes transfers, accounting for 30 percent. The budget spending was 98.3pct, or 1 trillion and 338 billion tenge higher. Over half of the expenditure, KZT4tn, was used for social sphere.

Mr. Sultanov also mentioned the plans to create favorable conditions for business by reducing tax inspections. At the same time, it is expected result in tax revenues growth. According to the minister, the approaches based on the principles of trust, transparency and mutually beneficial cooperation are implemented in tax audits, i.e. horizontal monitoring.

The minister also said that it is planned to revise the tax preferences in order to reduce the number of ineffective reliefs.