Kazakhstan to revise approach to hidden income of citizens and foreigners

Tengrinews.kz – Significant changes have been made to the methods of identifying the shadow economy in Kazakhstan, following a directive from the Supreme Audit Chamber (SAC). These changes will improve the detection of hidden incomes and take into account new forms of illegal business activity.

Last year, the SAC conducted an audit on the effectiveness of the government’s policy to combat the shadow economy. The audit revealed that existing methods for calculating hidden and illegal incomes were outdated and failed to consider many actual sources of shadow money. As a result, the Bureau of National Statistics was tasked with revising and significantly improving these methods.

"Now, the updated methodology for assessing the unobserved economy includes previously overlooked sectors such as education, healthcare, and leisure. The algorithms for calculations in these areas have been updated and supplemented," the SAC stated in a press release.

New approaches have also been introduced for accounting for hidden incomes, including those from:

• private individuals importing goods for resale;
• agricultural producers engaged in livestock breeding, meat sales, and growing potatoes and oilseeds;
• entrepreneurs providing leisure and entertainment services, as well as car washes;
• foreign citizens earning income in Kazakhstan.

These changes will enable more accurate assessments of the volume of income not captured in official statistics, helping to better identify hidden financial flows.

At the same time, significant changes have been made to the methodology for assessing illegal activities, including updates and corrections to factors such as:

• recalculating the turnover of synthetic drugs based on the current list of prohibited substances;
• clarifying sources of data on the number of drug addicts;
• revising the calculation of narcotic product production;
• correcting formulas for illegal logging, poaching, and fish production;
• refining data sources for confiscated counterfeit goods, pirated copies, and illegal products.

An important change was the adjustment of data collection for small businesses. Previously, activities in sectors like retail and car repairs were recorded selectively, but now statistics will be gathered comprehensively.

"This is needed to eliminate distortions in the calculations of the unobserved economy," said the SAC.

The SAC emphasized that these updates will allow the government to more accurately assess the scope of the shadow economy and take "more timely and effective response measures" based on the data gathered.