A trilateral meeting of customs and tax services of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia was held in Almaty
On February 15, 2022, a trilateral meeting of the customs and tax services of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia was held in Almaty on the initiative of the Kazakh side. The topic of the meeting was the issues of ensuring effective coordination of the actions of the tax and customs services of the three countries.
The negotiating delegation of the Republic of Kazakhstan was headed by Bakhyt Sultanov, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
"Recently, there has been a tendency to increase the gray turnover of Chinese goods in the EAEU market. Such a trend cannot remain without due attention from the governments of our countries," B. Sultanov said. He focused on the risks posed by the increase in gray imports: the underpayment of taxes to the budgets, the import of counterfeit, substandard and, sometimes, unsafe products to the Union markets. "This factor negatively affects the development of a competitive market in mutual trade, which ultimately jeopardizes the development of certain sensitive sectors of the economy," B. Sultanov summed up.
The first heads of customs and tax services from Kyrgyzstan took part in the negotiations. The Kyrgyz delegation was headed by Arzybek Kozhoshev, First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. The Russian delegation was also represented by the leadership of the customs and tax services, headed by Alexey Sazanov, State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia.
Within the framework of the meeting, a meeting of the parties at the expert level and an expanded meeting with the participation of heads of delegations took place. During the negotiations, the parties discussed the results of last year's meeting at the level of the Ministries of Finance of Kazakhstan and Russia with the elaboration of additional measures to implement mutual agreements. The issues of information exchange between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia were considered. The parties noted that the organization of the interaction process will allow solving topical issues on combating the shadow economy of the three countries. One of the items on the agenda was the discussion of the problem of reliable reflection of the cost in shipping documents for goods transported in mutual trade. The parties supported the need for a deeper study of this issue with the definition of categories of high-risk exporters and spot work with them. Also during the negotiations, it was possible to agree on the establishment of trilateral cooperation with the participation of fiscal and law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia for the coming year.
Following the meeting, the parties noted that the implementation of the agreements reached would give a positive impetus to strengthening cooperation in the customs and tax sphere, which in general would have a positive impact on the economies of the three countries.