Yuri Tleumuratov: "Thanks to the joint work of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs, Prosecutor's Office and akimat we managed to improve the situation of the business"

Number of tax inspections, compared with 2015, decreased by 1.5 times

In 2016, thanks to close cooperation with the prosecutor's office the Chamber of entrepreneurs of Almaty managed to protect the property rights of business to 5.4 billion tenge (in 2015, it was 3 billion tenge). This was announced by the director of the Chamber of entrepreneurs Yury Tleumuratov at the meeting with the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Zhakip Asanov and akim of Almaty Baurzhan Baibek with entrepreneurs.

"In the past year, the city prosecutor's office on the initiative of the Chamber protected the rights of entrepreneurs, during which were revealed numerous violations of the rights of entrepreneurs to address which the prosecutor's office has taken measures of prosecutorial response and restored the violated rights of entrepreneurs. 4 protests of the prosecutor were satisfied. 14 illegal acts were cancelled by the order of the prosecutor’s office, the rights of 51 entrepreneurs were protected. 20 were issed on elimination of violations of the law, the causes and conditions contributing to them", - said Yury Tleumuratov.

11791 acts on the appointment of various audits of business entities were registered in 2016, whereas in the previous 2015 - 7959, i.e. a half fold increase in the number of inspections. Number of tax inspections, compared with 2015, decreased by 1.5 times, at the same time inspections of some state agencies have increased significantly.

1. Inspections of SRC of Almaty 2015 – 4337 inspection – 1154 violations were revealed; 2016 – 2864 inspections – 1025 violations were revealed.
2. Checks of DES Almaty 2015: 168 inspections – 86 violations were identified; 2016: -1565 inspections revealed 824 violations.
3. Checks by DZPP of Almaty 2015: 662 inspections – 287 violations were revealed; 2016: 3460 inspections- 1912 violations were revealed.

The past 2016 for the Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Almaty was marked by the arrival of a large number of complaints from businesses with complaints against the tax authorities on the assessed taxes and fines accrued on them as counterparties of pseudo-entrepreneurs, as well as the consequences, involving administrative responsibility. After the intervention of the Prosecutor General the relevant authorities began to respect the principle of presumption of innocence, but not presumption of bad faith of all counterparties of pseudo-entrepreneurs. A striking example touched more than three hundred companies. Decision of the judicial board on criminal cases of the Supreme Court on 12^th of July 2016 verdict of Almaly district court against E. Minakova convicted for pseudo-entrepreneurship, on appeal against the Attorney General has been canceled due to procedural irregularities and sent for retrial. By resolution of Almaly District Court on 2^nd of February  2017 a criminal case against E.Minakov discontinued for lack of evidence.

We cooperate in many areas. At the site of the Chamber was created the Council for protection of entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption, the permanent members of which are representatives of the prosecutor’s office of Almaty.  A memorandum was also concluded with the city’s prosecutor's office and the aviation prosecutor's office, we are currently working on the conclusion of the Memorandum between the Chamber and the management of the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of Almaty and Semirechensk transport prosecutor's office. This collaboration will allow more effective monitoring of the legality and validity of audits prescribed in respect of the business.

"Despite the progress in solving the problems with pseudo-entrepreneurship, currently there are the so-called "residual effects". One of the companies affected by the activities of the pseudo-enterprise LLP "CSO Interoil". Partnership for a long time is trying to appeal against the notice of the tax authorities in the amount of 17 billion tenge, the company threatened with bankruptcy, thus, more than 300 employees could lose their jobs (i.e., members of their families are potentially around 1,000 people). It is also worth noting that the company only for 2016 paid 900 million tenge of taxes to the state budget. In this connection, please support us in terms of satisfaction of the application for lodging appeal against the decision of specialized inter-district economic court of Almaty on 5^th of August 2016 ", - said Yury Tleumuratov

He added that it is necessary to make appropriate changes in the tax laws, regarding audits of contractors of pseudo-entrepreneurs for a particular transaction, rather than the full documentary check of CIT and VAT as it is currently conducted. The problem of tenants in social dining facilities is not completely solved. The Chamber achieved a partial resolution of the matter, for tenants of school canteens. The legitimate interests of businesses providing similar services and the rental of premises in other public institutions (health facilities and military institutions) are ignored.

"Currently, the mechanism of appeal of a tax audit results provides for recourse to a higher authority, i.e. the State Revenue Committee. The current practice shows that in this case there is a risk of bias in the final decision, in connection with the interest in the final results. Thus, we propose to improve the existing mechanism through the establishment of a special commission under the Ministry of Finance with the inclusion of representatives of NCE "Atameken". A number of companies engaged in the provision of services in registration of necessary documents for foreigners, including visa support. As you know, the visa "C5" category for business immigrants is given in the presence of coordination with Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan on the basis of a request of akimat. It is advisable to initiate the elimination of administrative barriers and simplify the process for investors", - suggested the director of the regional chamber.