President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev instructed the government to start the audit of deposits to identify those of them that are used inefficiently. At a meeting with representatives of the business community, he promised redistribute ownership in favor of those who can improve indicators, reports RIA Novosti.
According to the head of state, first of all, unused deposits should be determined, which owners took the “future”. They will be passed to local or foreign investors who promise to invest in development.
Last week Tokayev demanded from ministers to find new sources of income to the budget. Since the country receives the largest part of revenues by selling minerals, initiatives were expected in this direction.
One of them was the proposal of the Minister of Economy Alibeque Kuantyryov to introduce an additional tax on solid minerals (uranium, copper, iron ore, zinc) and withdraw part of the margin from producers and suppliers of petroleum products.
Kuantyrov did not specify the sum of the proposed tax, as well as the size of the fees. He only pointed out that the tax should be tied to real world prices.
Large-scale reforms in Kazakhstan began after mass folk protests that broke out at the beginning of the year due to a sharp increase in gas prices. Speeches turned into pogroms, against the background of which Tokayev removed the first president of the country of Nursultan Nazarbayev from the management of the Security Council and took it off approximate.
He also criticized the country’s richest people who do not share money with the people and restrain the development of the country, and demanded “significant and regular deductions” from them.