Legislative News

LEGISLATION NEWS

169 normative legal acts were approved in November 2008, including:

•\tConstitutional Laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 1;

•\tLaws of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 13;

•\tDecrees of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 12;

•\tRegulations of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 57;

•\tOther normative legal acts – 56.

Most of them regulate the public and financial sectors.

A significant event taking place this November was the acceptance of the Budget and Tax codes by the Parliament of RoK. Taking into accoun the importance of tax innovations and their principal nature, we will send you a separate Client Update on the new Tax code.

We would like to draw your attention to the following acts:

1) Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On amendments to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «Regarding state purchases» № 87-IV dated on 20.11.2008.

This law introduces a number of amendments, the most essential of which are presented below: a) the potential supplier has the right not to submit guarantee of the bid application for participation in competition if he participates in competition on the state purchases of the services provided by the state social order (item 3 art. 23);

1. b) national holdings, national companies and the companies affiliated with them are not included on the list of customers (item 24 art.1);

2. c) the deadline to execute the contract on the state purchases can not be more than thirty calendar days from the date of sending the draft contract on the state purchases to the potential supplier (item 3 art.27).

2) Order of Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan № 271-р dated 18.11.2008.

According to the order a Work Group has been set up to elaborate proposals relating to the execution of the State program on the development of the Kazakh area of the Caspian Ocean. The work group consists of representatives of various Ministries, Akimats of Atyrau oblast and Mangystau oblast, state experts and representatives of the National Company “KazMunaiGas”

We will subsequently inform you about accepted decisions of Work Group.

3) Draft rules for carrying out the monitoring of transactions

This rule is developed with a view to realizating the Law of RoК «About transfer pricing» dated 05.07.2008

The rule contains the following provisions:a) participants in transactions defined below, subject to monitoring, give the reporting on monitoring of transactions in tax authorities till 15th April of the year following the accounting period (item 14);

1. b) the participants of transactions who are carrying out the transactions with the goods, not subject to the monitoring of transactions, must complete documentation confirming the validity of the applied price, and also must present the aforementioned documentation on demand of the authorised bodies (item 15);

2. c) in case of a deviation of the price of the transaction from the market price, the authorised bodies have the right to demand information confirming the applied price (item 16).

Please take into account that this is a draft and will come into force on 01.01.2009.

4) Draft list of commodities, the transaction of which are subject to monitoring

This list below defines the commodities the transactions of which are subject to state monitoring.

1. a) Oil and oil products;

2. b) Oil gases;

3. c) Nonferrous metals;

4. d) Ferrous metals;

5. e) Precious metals;

6. f) Ores and concentrates;

7. g) Products of inorganic chemistry;

8. h) Grain;

9. i) Cotton;

10. j) Sugar.

11. Please take into account that it is a draft and will come into force on 01.01.2009.

APPOINTMENTS

Also, state and judicial appointments were held in November 2008

We would like to provide you with the most important of these

•\tDoskaliev Zhaksilik Akmurzaivich has been appointed Minister of health protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

We hope that the information provided is useful to your business activities in Kazakhstan.