Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Kazakhstan to introduce Tax Free system

12 March 2019 16:51 (UTC+04:00)
Kazakhstan to introduce Tax Free system

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Tax Free is a system to refund value-added tax on purchases (VAT) for foreign nationals. It allows returning from 8 to 27 percent of the value of purchases made abroad.

Tax Free system will be introduced in the airports of Astana, Almaty and Shymkent in 2022, Kazakh media reports.

Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly said that the country will implement Tax Free according to the experience of the EU countries, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and some CIS countries - Russia, Belarus, Georgia.

He noted that thanks to this measure, many developed countries have increased not only trade, but also the number of tourists coming for shopping.

He added that the republican budget will carry out reimbursement only at major airports (Astana, Almaty and Shymkent) with the involvement of operators such as PremierTaxFree, GlobalBlue, InnovaTaxfree.

Tax Free is one of the measures that are envisaged in the state program for development of the tourism industry for 2019-2025, which is being prepared to be adopted in Kazakhstan. The program should increase the flow of tourists to Kazakhstan by four times.

To reduce the budget burden, it is planned to introduce a tourist fee for foreign citizens. Tourist tax (Bed Tax) will be $2-4 per night. This measure will begin to operate throughout Kazakhstan since the adoption of the state program.

Premier Tax Free is part of The Fintrax Group, a financial services company, specialising in multicurrency payments, credit card processing and the management of VAT refunds for tourists.

Premier Tax Free provides its services to overseas visitors, international retail groups, hotels and banks around the world. It is the second largest tax refund provider globally, with Global Blue being the leader.

With global headquarters in Ireland and regional headquarters in Paris and London, Premier Tax Free now operates in 34 countries and employs over 800 people worldwide.

Global Blue is a tourism shopping tax refund company headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland.

The company is best known for tax-free shopping, a VAT/GST refund product and also operates in dynamic currency conversion, marketing services, point-of-sale technology, retail staff education, and customer intelligence. It is the industry leader for providing tax refunds, with Premier Tax Free as its closest competitor.

Global Blue employs around 1,800 people in 51 countries, and provides services to approximately 300,000 merchants (retailers, hotels, restaurants, etc.), and banks in these locations.

Innova Tax Free Group is a company specialized in VAT refunds to foreign tourists (“Tax Free”).

The company is continuously developing new tools and technological solutions that provide the means of communication between retails and tourist purchasers.

---

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more