Rising: oil and mineral taxes face increases in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan considers oil tax increase
Kazakhstan is considering halving corporate income tax to 15% while introducing a tax of up to 20% that will apply only to the oil and mining sectors, an oil industry group official said today.
The government is drafting a new tax code which it hopes will foster economic growth thanks to lower overall taxes while boosting revenues from the key oil and mining industries, wrote Reuters.
The authorities have yet to announce planned tax rates.
Today, an official from KazEnergy, an oil industry group headed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's influential son-in-law Timur Kulibayev, shed some light on the tax reform plans.
"The corporate income tax is being cut to 15% from 30% with the gap to be filled by revenues from the minerals extraction tax," KazEnergy director Azamat Aubakirov, member of a working group developing the new tax code, told a tax conference today.
He said the government was considering two schemes for the minerals extraction tax, which will replace royalty payments.
The idea was to introduce either a flat 20% rate or a scale ranging from 5% to 20% depending on extraction volume, Aubakirov said.
"We (KazEnergy) have proposed a range of 4% to 20%, taking into account the specifics of each field," he said.
The new tax code, due to be drafted by fall, will take effect next year.