The Kazakh Ministry of Finance explained the budget shortfall.

During a government meeting, Deputy Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov reported on budget revenues and expenditures, as noted by inbusiness.kz.        

According to him, since the beginning of the year, the state budget has received 19 trillion tenge, which is only 90% of the planned amount. Of this, the republican budget has received 11.8 trillion tenge, or 82% of the plan.

"The underperformance of the plan is linked to a decrease in tax revenues, which (the tax revenue plan – Ed.) has been fulfilled by only 76%. The plan was 14.3 trillion tenge, while the actual amount is 10.8 trillion tenge, resulting in a shortfall of 3.5 trillion tenge. The main reasons for this shortfall include a 6.4% reduction in imports from three countries over ten months compared to the same period last year, amounting to a decrease of 2.3 billion dollars. Additionally, there has been a drop in prices for key export metals, which affected advance payments from 602 large taxpayers by 26.7%, equating to a decline of 267 billion tenge. The increase in VAT refunds reached 981 billion tenge, which is 2.5 times higher than in the same period last year," said Birzhanov. 

Meanwhile, state budget expenditures have been executed at 94%, the republican budget at 96%, and local budgets at 92%. Expenditures from the republican budget amounted to 20.8 trillion tenge, with a continued focus on maintaining social orientation.

Pensions and benefits disbursed from the budget totaled 5.2 trillion tenge, regional subsidies amounted to 4.8 trillion tenge, and the targeted contribution to the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund (FOMS) was 1.6 trillion tenge.

Furthermore, the department representative reported that since the beginning of the year, 1,460 audit activities have been conducted involving 6.9 trillion tenge of budget funds. Financial violations amounting to 271 billion tenge were identified, with violations rectified totaling 221 billion tenge.