Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov held a meeting, during which the issues of reducing the shadow economy through digitalisation of trade were considered. The ongoing work of the Ministries of Trade and Integration, Finance, Industry and Construction, Agriculture, as well as opinions of representatives of Atameken NCE were heard.

The participants of the meeting noted the positive effect of the introduction of labelling of goods, which is one of the effective tools in the fight against the shadow economy. 

In Kazakhstan tobacco products, footwear products and from 1 July this year all medicines are subject to mandatory labelling by means of identification. 

According to the Ministry of Trade and Integration, after the introduction of mandatory labelling of tobacco products, the growth of excise tax revenues on all types of tobacco products by 25% was ensured. In addition, the possibility of detecting counterfeit products has increased. 

Thus, from 2022 to Q1 2024, 15 billion tenge worth of illegal tobacco products were seized in the country.

At the same time, VAT and customs duties from imported footwear products increased by 293%: from 7.8 billion tenge in 2021 to 30.7 billion tenge in 2023. 

They discussed plans for further introduction of labelling on other groups of goods, the implementation of which, according to forecasts for the next 5 years, will additionally reduce shadow turnover by 926 billion tenge; the share of the observed economy to increase by 23%; budget revenues - by 270 billion tenge. 

"We should unequivocally go towards ‘whitewashing’ of the economy, full traceability and transparency of our market. At the same time, the interests of business must be taken into account. It is necessary to develop a specific schedule and terms of transition to labelling of goods in the medium term. Entrepreneurs should know what awaits them in the near future. If we start to "subside" on certain groups of goods, we need to work out additional measures of state support for our manufacturers," Olzhas Bektenov stressed, instructing the sectoral state bodies to strengthen the work on informing the public and business about the positive effects of the introduction of labelling. 

The progress of implementation of the pilot project of the National Traceability System in Kazakhstan was also considered. Its introduction allows to track the movement of goods from suppliers to buyers, to control the entire supply chain, to record information on the availability of goods in the warehouses of regional suppliers and movement in real time. It also reduces data processing time and increases the efficiency of control over the turnover of goods. 

As a result of the pilot implementation of the price stabilisation mechanism, 100% of contracts of agricultural production cooperatives worth 89.4 billion tenge were digitised, covering 95% of producers and sellers of socially important food products.

Plans to expand the National System and to include a food basket of 58 commodity items and a list of 488 goods, on the basis of which inflation is calculated, have been considered. 

At the end of the meeting Prime Minister instructed relevant ministries to strengthen measures to detect counterfeit products, as well as to work out the issues of introduction of mandatory marking of commodity groups on completed pilot projects and legislative fixation of a single catalogue of goods to ensure reliable and prompt monitoring of prices.

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