24.01.2026, 17:01 911
Khalyk Kenesi to become supreme consultative body representing the nation
Images | telegram/Конституциялык реформа 2026
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As part of constitutional reform, it is proposed to enshrine the status of the Khalyk Kenesi - the People’s Council - in a separate section of the Constitution. This was announced by Assistant to the President of Kazakhstan for Legal Affairs Yerzhan Zhienbayev, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Zhienbayev noted that the People’s Council will serve as the highest consultative body representing the interests of the people of Kazakhstan. Its composition will be formed by the Head of State from among the country’s citizens.
The main powers of the People’s Council will include drafting proposals and recommendations on:
- key areas of domestic policy;
- strengthening public harmony, national unity, and solidarity;
- promoting the principles of state activity and national values.
Zhienbayev added that the President had proposed granting the People’s Council the right of legislative initiative, which requires constitutional approval.
The procedure for establishing, forming the composition, and organizing the activity of the People’s Council will be determined by a separate constitutional law.
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24.01.2026, 15:40 686
Vice presidency in Kazakhstan: Appointment rules and key responsibilities
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At the first meeting of the Commission on Constitutional Reform, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Legal Affairs Yerzhan Zhienbayev spoke on the proposed amendments concerning the institution of the vice presidency and its powers, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Zhienbayev said that the vice president will be appointed by the President with the consent of the Qurultay, expressed by a majority of its deputies. The President will also hold the authority to dismiss the vice president.
Acting on behalf of the Head of State, the vice president will represent Kazakhstan in international relations and serve as the President’s representative in dealings with the Qurultay, the Government, and other state bodies.
The vice president will also engage with socio-political, scientific, and cultural-educational organizations both domestically and , on behalf of the President. Other powers of the vice president, Zhienbayev noted, will be determined by the President.
With the introduction of the vice presidency institution, provisions regarding the State Counselor will be excluded from the Constitution. Requirements for the vice president’s office will be formalized at the constitutional level.
Specifically, the vice president must not serve as a deputy of a representative body, hold other paid positions, or engage in entrepreneurial activity. During the term of office, the vice president must also not be a member of a political party.
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23.01.2026, 22:10 28651
Tokayev hands over State Flag to flag bearers of national Olympic and Paralympic teams
Images | Akorda
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Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted the importance of the upcoming XXV Winter Olympic Games and XIV Winter Paralympic Games, which will gather world’s strongest athletes in Italy, Qazinform News Agency learned from the Akorda press service.
According to him, around 40 athletes will represent Kazakhstan at the Olympic Games, competing in 10 sports, with the majority making their debut at this prestigious event.
Tokayev emphasized that the road to the Winter Olympics has been challenging. He noted that Kazakh athletes have already achieved remarkable success, winning 17 gold, 31 silver, and 21 bronze medals at international competitions.
He stressed that high hopes are placed on the para-athletes, who have secured 10 quotas for the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games scheduled for early March.
Over the years of Independence, our athletes have repeatedly demonstrated their high professionalism, achieving victories at the Winter Olympic Games through tough competition. The names of Vladimir Smirnov, Lyudmila Prokasheva, Elena Khrustaleva, Denis Ten, Yulia Galysheva, and many other Olympians are forever inscribed in the history of national sports. In honor of the achievements of our athletes on the world’s largest sporting arenas, the anthem has been played and the flag of our country has been raised many times. I believe that there are many more victories ahead," said the President.
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23.01.2026, 15:29 28961
Embezzlement of budget funds in private schools and misuse in the agro-industrial complex: the Government has summarized the preliminary results of the audit
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As part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State to strengthen budget discipline, the Government is carrying out systematic work to analyze the efficiency of spending funds in key sectors of the economy, primeminister.kz reports.
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov heard a report by Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev, who presented the preliminary results of the audit of financing for private schools and the agro-industrial complex. According to the Ministry of Finance, the number of private schools has increased from 203 in 2020 to 878 schools in 2025, while the number of students over the five-year period has grown sixfold-from 53 thousand to 322 thousand children. At the same time, the volume of budget expenditures in this area amounted to 248 billion tenge, exceeding the 2020 level (13.3 billion tenge) by 20 times.
It was noted that until the end of 2025, the financing system for private schools was fragmented and uncontrolled, which created conditions for data distortion and misuse of budget funds. In this regard, since the end of last year, financing has been transferred to the digital platform Orta-bilim.e-qazyna, which ensures transparency and automation of all stages. At this stage, this has already confirmed the effectiveness of the new approach and makes it possible to minimize the risks of improper use of funds.
The audit of private school financing conducted by the Ministry of Finance revealed a number of systemic violations, including:
- overstating the number of students through fictitious enrollments and multiple transfers between schools;
- unjustified overstatement of the number of student places without regard to the actual capacity of buildings (exceeding standard capacity by more than three times);
- obtaining double benefits by understating income in tax reporting in order to receive budget financing while simultaneously reducing tax payments;
- carrying out current and cosmetic repairs instead of capital repairs (in the absence of design documentation and cost estimates).
- The Minister of Finance cited numerous facts of violations. It was emphasized that the facts identified by the audit indicate that for a significant portion of private schools, participation in state financing was viewed not as a mechanism to ensure accessibility and quality of education, but as a tool for extracting benefits at the expense of the budget rather than achieving a social objective. The violations became possible due to negligence or direct involvement of officials of state bodies.
Audit activities of the Ministry of Finance are ongoing, and based on their results, proposals and recommendations will be prepared to improve the mechanism for financing private schools.
According to the results of the audit of financing of the agro-industrial complex, in the period 2023-2024 the total volume of identified violations amounted to about 300 billion tenge, of which direct budget losses totaled 32 billion tenge. In total, about 1.2 trillion tenge was allocated over two years for state support measures for the agro-industrial complex.
Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev noted that significant funds are being used without achieving the expected economic effect and benefits for the population. As a result of the audit, a number of systemic violations were identified. In particular, shadow schemes totaling 5.5 billion tenge were established in the subsidization of agricultural producers. Specifically, in 11 regions, cases were recorded of fictitious resale of the same cattle between subsidy recipients in the amount of 808.1 million tenge.
In addition, Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev cited a number of specific violations in the provision of subsidies. For investment projects in the agro-industrial complex implemented through budget loans, violations totaling 13.3 billion tenge were identified. Facts were established where livestock and equipment were either not supplied at all or supplied in smaller volumes, and certain construction works were paid for but not actually performed.
Serious violations were also identified in the issuance of microloans to end borrowers with overdue debts and existing arrests. Madi Takiyev reported that 25 borrowers with total arrears of 45.8 million tenge received loans totaling 177.7 million tenge.
It was noted that the implementation of financing programs for fieldwork and harvesting, with an annual volume of 140 billion tenge and coverage of 3.2 thousand borrowers, demonstrated systemic inefficiency. JSC "Agrarian Credit Corporation," established to finance current agricultural operations, does not ensure the declared coverage of up to 70% of farmers’ costs. Funds are distributed in small amounts among a large number of borrowers, which does not allow the full production cycle to be ensured.
Taking into account the identified violations and misuse of budget funds, and in order to increase the effectiveness of state support for the agro-industrial complex, the Head of Government gave a number of instructions:
- to introduce end-to-end digital monitoring with integration of the information systems of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and local executive bodies;
- to revise subsidy systems with a focus on actual output rather than paper indicators;
- to apply format-logical control blocking the sale of subsidized livestock until the conditions of state support are fulfilled;
- to conduct mandatory state expertise of construction and installation works for investment projects implemented using state loans.
Materials on specific facts of violations are being transferred to law enforcement agencies for procedural decisions.
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23.01.2026, 14:12 29561
Automatic Pre-Filling of VAT Declarations and "Digital VAT": Olzhas Bektenov Held a Meeting on Tax Administration
Images | primeminister.kz
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Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov held a meeting on the development of fiscal policy and the digitalization of the information systems of the Ministry of Finance as part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Heads of relevant agencies and regional departments of state revenues took part in the meeting, primeminister.kz reports.
The results of the execution of the revenue part of the state budget for 2025 were reviewed. According to Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev, the revenue plan was fulfilled by 100.1%, and 24.6 trillion tenge was received into the budget following the results of last year.
With the new Tax Code entering into force on January 1, 2026, 454 thousand taxpayers confirmed the conduct of activities under the simplified declaration; 138 thousand individuals were registered as self-employed (of which 122 thousand had not previously been registered). More than 7 thousand business entities - new VAT payers - were registered.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the priority task of state bodies is the formation of a service-oriented approach, ensuring transparency and a fair approach to taxpayers. In this regard, the heads of state revenue departments were presented with the main principles of work.
Fair, convenient, and understandable. This is exactly how the tax payment process should be. Tax service employees should become consultants and partners of business. Liability measures are provided only for those who deliberately conceal income. Therefore, the entire year of 2026 will be transitional for small and microbusinesses - penalties and fines for mistakes will not be charged. This way, entrepreneurs will be able to use this year for a smooth adaptation to the changes," Olzhas Bektenov noted.
Deputy Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov reported on the work being carried out to introduce a new digital architecture of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) and to transfer tax and customs administration to a microservice model.
In order to optimize fiscal processes, the SRC has put into operation 5 modern digital platforms instead of the previous 12 outdated information systems. This made it possible to simplify taxation procedures, create favorable conditions for bona fide business, and strengthen control over violations.
Since the beginning of the current year, about 500 thousand applications for transition to the simplified taxation regime have been processed. 800 thousand tax reporting forms are already in the new information systems of the state revenue authorities. Digital services serve about 1.7 million business entities. On average, more than 87 thousand taxpayers visit the system daily.
The main advantages of optimization are fast processing of tax documents with a reduction in time from 1 hour to 1 minute, receipt of online payments, a high level of system availability, and an increase in the number of simultaneous users (from 100 thousand to 250 thousand). Format-logical control has been introduced to support and prevent errors by entrepreneurs.
Since this year, automatic pre-filling of VAT declarations has been implemented, which simplifies the fulfillment of obligations for business. For the self-employed, status is assigned automatically through the mobile application e-Salyq Business.
At the same time, new digital tools are used not only for tax and customs administration, but also for the formation of statistics, monitoring prices for food and socially significant goods, regional fuel needs, calculation of benefits, issuance of subsidies, exclusion of unlawful procurements by the quasi-public sector, activities of law enforcement agencies, and others.
The unified analytical Big Data platform has combined data from 74 sources. It contains all key information about taxpayers, including data on real estate, transport, land plots, financial operations, and international transactions within the framework of currency control, among others. Analytical tools ensured additional tax and payment revenues of more than 700 billion tenge in 2025 and increased the targeting of control.
Transparency in submitted tax declarations and issued invoices provides additional tools for identifying signs of the use of illegal schemes. For example, through the pilot implementation in Astana of a new service for selecting high-risk taxpayers for violations of cash discipline, violations were recorded for 55.9 thousand out of 121 thousand taxpayers.
The leadership of the Ministry of Finance cited specific examples:
- In Astana, the owner of one of the public catering establishments was included in the list of high-risk taxpayers due to a discrepancy between issued receipts and the number of orders actually fulfilled. As a result, the entrepreneur acknowledged the violations and submitted an additional declaration.
- In the Mangystau region, an analysis of the activities of an energy company revealed an overstatement of the cost of purchased pipelines by a preliminary amount of 16.9 billion tenge. A criminal case has been initiated on this fact.
- In the same Mangystau region, a number of significant inconsistencies were identified at an LLP, indicating the creation of a tax evasion scheme. In particular, most individual entrepreneur suppliers - counterparties - submitted reports from the IP address of the LLP itself; some individual entrepreneurs are employees of the general contractor, and others.
- In Almaty, a significant overstatement of wages was established on the eve of obtaining state contracts for the construction of comfortable schools. Thus, during the construction of one of the facilities, the salary of the head of the LLP increased to 131.5 million, which indicates a possible deliberate increase in construction costs. An inspection has been appointed on this fact.
As a result of the introduction of a biometric identification module for taxpayers showing signs of issuing fictitious electronic invoices, 17.4 thousand high-risk enterprises were identified. The possibility of illegal issuance of electronic invoices in the amount of 30 billion tenge was suppressed.
An important step is the launch of the "Digital VAT" module, which ensures transparent and controlled VAT refunds using the digital tenge.
Currency control" has been integrated with the information system of the National Bank to obtain information on payments carried out by authorized second-tier banks.
The international flights module will allow for preliminary analysis of passenger traffic and identification of patterns in the movement of individuals and goods.
In addition, international integrations are currently in place within the framework of the OECD (CRS) with 80 countries, the USA (FATCA), and the CIS (5 countries) for the automatic exchange of information on residents’ income and property abroad. As a result of the measures taken, tax revenues in the amount of about 6 billion tenge have been ensured.
Special attention was paid to the ongoing work on the phased implementation of the Keden information system with automation of processes and a transition to transparent and effective control. To date, 12 thousand users are registered in the system, 1.4 million transit, 460 thousand customs, and about 1.1 million passenger declarations have been issued.
The launch of Keden reduced the processing time for transit declarations from 30 to 10 minutes and automated interaction with related control services. Overall, due to the digitized database and the conducted analytics, additional customs payments in the amount of 115 billion tenge were accrued to the budget in 2025.
Following the meeting, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed state bodies to keep under special control the ongoing work on large-scale digitalization.
- The Ministry of Finance was instructed to ensure high-quality consideration of constructive proposals from the public and experts, with the introduction of specific proposals.
- Territorial departments of state revenues - to ensure proper implementation of the adopted reforms on the ground, as well as the conduct of systematic explanatory work for business and the population.
- The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence - to provide the information systems of the Ministry of Finance with high-speed communication channels and server capacities.
- The Ministry of Finance jointly with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence - to work out the issue of providing the State Revenue Committee with the necessary computing capacities.
- The Ministries of Trade, Finance, and Artificial Intelligence - by July 1 of the current year to expand the application of the National Catalog of Goods on electronic trading platforms and marketplaces, with subsequent receipt of price information on goods.
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23.01.2026, 11:58 29841
135.5 thousand citizens’ appeals received by the contact center: Bektenov familiarized himself with the progress of explaining the tax reform
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Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov familiarized himself with the digital infrastructure of the E-Finance Center (EFC) and the ongoing work to explain the tax reform to the population and business within the framework of the tasks set by the President in the Address to the People and at the National Kurultai, primeminister.kz reports.
During the visit, the operation of the Unified Contact Center was demonstrated. Taxpayer consultations are conducted through a three-level system: initial explanations, support, and the introduction of changes to information systems. In total, since the beginning of January of the current year, about 135.5 thousand appeals have been received via phone calls through the free 1414 hotline, messengers, and AI-powered chatbots that provide instant answers to questions.
On a daily basis, operators handle an average of about 13-14 thousand appeals. At the same time, around 7 thousand of them were related to issues of tax reform, social payments, and others. In case of necessity, calls and messages from citizens and businesses are forwarded to specialized divisions for analysis and adoption of systemic decisions.
As the Head of State noted in his speech at the National Kurultai, with the introduction of new provisions of the Tax Code, our task is to ensure a smooth, conflict-free "fiscal transit". To build an effective system of interaction with the population and business.
We are forming a fair and effective tax system and are gradually moving toward the development of a culture of tax compliance. It is important to stimulate a conscious approach - to contribute to the development of one’s native land through the payment of taxes. This is exactly the form of patriotism the President spoke about. Already today we see that business is smoothly adapting to the principles of a Fair Kazakhstan. In 2025, business entities independently accrued additional taxes totaling more than 750 billion tenge," Olzhas Bektenov noted.
The Prime Minister emphasized that tax reform, like all innovations, certainly brings difficulties and new challenges. Nevertheless, business activity in Kazakhstan continues to grow. According to the Ministry of Finance, in 2025, 480 thousand new legal entities were registered in the country. In the first 20 days of this year alone, another 22 thousand entities were registered, which indicates that negative forecasts about an alleged mass closure of businesses are not being confirmed. However, if norms that clearly hinder business activity are identified, they must be summarized and proposals for their adjustment must be submitted.
Emphasis was placed on accessible and high-quality explanation to the population of the reforms being carried out in the country, aimed at simplifying tax administration and reducing bureaucratic procedures.
The E-Finance Center is a key service tool for interaction between citizens, business, and government bodies. The main digital infrastructure facility of the Ministry of Finance provides consulting services to taxpayers, technical support, and administration of information systems. The divisions are located in a new building that has brought all services together on one site, which in turn has increased the level of information security.
In addition to consultations, specialists of the E-Finance Center ensure the functioning of 21 information systems responsible for fiscal and budgetary policies. In addition, the Center acts as a state operator in such areas as support of the budget process integrator, operator and service support of the public procurement portal, and others.
Following the visit to the facility, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Finance to ensure all necessary conditions for further technological modernization of the E-Finance Center and increasing the capacity for processing citizens’ appeals through all communication channels.
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22.01.2026, 19:10 58171
Kazakh Government reviews comprehensive plan to combat shadow economy
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Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin chaired a government meeting today to review a draft comprehensive plan aimed at combating the shadow economy for 2026-2028, Qazinform News Agency learned from primeminister.kz.
The document targets five key sectors with the highest risk of shadow practices: healthcare and social services, trade, education, construction and agriculture. The list of sectors is not exhaustive and may be expanded as new grey areas are identified, officials noted. At the same time, measures that would impose new obligations on businesses or tighten regulations have already been excluded at the planning stage.
According to forecasts, the share of the unobserved economy in GDP is planned to be reduced to 14.5% in 2026, to 14% in 2027 and to 13.8% in 2028. The plan includes four main blocks and 30 measures covering:
• production of goods;
• production of services;
• improvement of fiscal administration;
• combating illegal activities.
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22.01.2026, 16:10 58421
President Tokayev Signs the Board of Peace Charter
Images | akorda.kz
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President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed the Charter of the Board of Peace, initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump, akorda.kz reports.
Alongside the President of Kazakhstan, leaders and high-level representatives from 18 countries also participated in the signing ceremony.
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22.01.2026, 14:35 58106
Kazakhstan considers easing visa rules with France
Images | Depositphotos
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Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, Alibek Bakayev, commented on the possibility of easing the visa regime between Kazakhstan and France, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Senator Sergey Yershov inquired about how the previously signed readmission agreement might influence efforts to simplify the visa regime with France.
Agreements of this kind, signed on a bilateral basis, help pave the way for both visa-free and readmission agreements, facilitating their faster conclusion. France is not the first country with which we have signed such documents bilaterally, and any bilateral interaction contributes to the development of broader multilateral cooperation," Alibek Bakayev said during the Senate’s meeting.
According to him, work in this direction has already begun.
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