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The Tax Free system has been launched in Kazakhstan for the first time, thanks to which foreign citizens are able to recover VAT on goods purchased in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This system is being implemented in test mode on the basis of the stationary shopping facility Esentai Mall located in Almaty and the International Airport of Almaty.

The authors of the pilot project are confident that Kazakhstan will become more attractive for shopping tourism. It is known that foreign travel agencies do not include in their tours countries where there is no full-fledged shopping with a tax refund system. As statistics show, after the introduction of Tax Free in many countries, not only the tourist flow has increased, but also the trade turnover has grown significantly. This project is being implemented based on the Rules developed by the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Taxpayers who have a trading place in the Esentai Mall and are VAT payers are recognized as participants of the pilot Tax Free project.

It should be noted that the Tax Free system was proposed to be started from 2022 in accordance with the State Program for the Tourism Industry Development until 2025. However, as a result of negotiations with the company Global Blue, which is the international leader of this service, assistance of the Project Office created under NC Kazakh Tourism JSC, as well as with the participation of OLYMPEX ADVISERS LLP, a pilot project was developed to introduce this mechanism in Kazakhstan since August 15, 2019.

Project team:

Miran Maulenov, Ainagul Akisheva, Akbota Nauryzova, Batyrkhan Iralimov