Erkanat ABENI
ALMATY, June 23
(THE GLOBE)
�Today we face a very difficult situation when the state may lose the most part of its revenues from the Kazakhstan markets to the budget,� the representatives of the Board of Markets announced in Almaty.
According to the representatives, this is connected with the fact that on April 22, 1999 the government of the country approved the Decree �On introduction of changes to the Decree of the government of RK No. 840 dated 4.09.98�.
According to the director of one of the markets, this document obviously contradicts to the President�s Decree �On protection of the rights of citizens and juridical persons for free business activity� dated April 26, 1998. The point 1 of this Decree stipulates: �To forbade the government of RK to issue normative legal acts entitling central and local executive organisations to collect payments, which are not provided by the legislative acts of RK, from the subjects of business activity.� Point 5 of this Decree stipulates that the government is �to abandon all governmental acts contradicting to this Decree.�
The representatives of the Board of the markets are confident that authors of this Decree prepared this document without any elementary economic calculations, without total analysis of the situation, including political and social ones. The representatives do not exclude the possibility that the introduction of these provisions may lead to the shift of the trade to the streets, uncontrolled quality of sold products, to reduction of the tax collections, growth of unemployment and worsening criminal situation.
The representatives of the Board of the markets believe that this Decree abandons all privileges to all categories of the population occupied in trade in the markets.
Second, this Decree introduces the order of collection of money not for a trade place (as it was before), but for the total area of the market. Daily number of sellers is not taken into consideration at all. In this situation even if there are no sellers at all, the market is to pay the total amount for all the area.
Besides, the calculation of this tax based on each square meter of a market�s area is actually the double tax on land, which contradicts the legislation on admissibility of a double taxation. Under these circumstances, according to the preliminary calculations, the administrations of the markets will have to increase rates of trade places 10 to 15 times, that will significantly reduce the number of sellers in the markets, and hence, will cause the growth of prices.
�At present to protect the legal interests of the market administrations and citizens occupying in retail sale, we are establishing the Association of Almaty markets, which will represent and protect our interests in the state organisations of the republic,� the directors of the markets stated.
The Board of the Markets of Almaty considers, that it is necessary to take legal measures to stop implementation of the above-mentioned government�s Decree No. 457 dated 22.04.1999 and further to lay a case regarding abandonment of this Decree. It is required to consider the compliance of this Decree with the legislation of the republic current in force.
In addition, the directors think that the markets should work on the basis of licenses, as this system has been probated and was successful in the Russian Federation and in other CIS countries. It is required to work out �Regulations� of the work of the markets and to provide accurately rights and duties of each party: buyer-seller-market-state. Under the circumstances of steadily working markets the state had an additional source of revenues to the budget. So, if in 1996 the planned collection from all markets of Almaty was 560 million tenge, in 1998 it was 1.2 billion tenge, the representatives of the Board of the Almaty markets emphasised. At present there are more than 90 markets only in Almaty. These markets provide a significant part of the population with job. For example, in Almaty more than 100000 people work at the markets, the director of one of the markets stated.
ALMATY, June 24
(THE GLOBE)
It is well known that the Commercial Television Channel (CTC) and �Caravan� newspaper have a new owner. According to some information, the former owner of these mass media was �Aktsept� company. There is a question: who is the new owner of these mass media?
It is not easy to answer this intriguing question, though it is possible that several below-mentioned logical conclusions will reveal the truth. We assume, that it will be more difficult with �Caravan� which has a great number of advertisers, than with the new newspaper which we will consider as the object of our small research. Let�s look at �Vremya� newspaper. We are not going to state that this newspaper belongs to Kazcommertsbank (KCB). But there are a lot of rumours about it. Does the powerful Kazcommertsbank really patronise �Vremya�? We suppose that information about main advertisers of the newspaper may clarify the situation. Looking the new newspaper through, we may notice interesting things.
There is a one-page advertisement of the JSC �Shymkentnefteorgsyntez� in each issue of the newspaper. Full-page advertisement of the national company on electrical networks �KEGOC�, as well as of the JSC �Kazakhtelecom� is placed in 3 issues of the newspaper out of 5. Of course, there is a half-page advertisement of KCB, which is placed practically in each issue of the newspaper.
Now let�s see, who controls these companies, which constantly place advertisement in �Vremya�, thus rendering this newspaper a great financial support.
Everybody knows about connection between the JSC �Shymkentnefteorgsyntez� and KCB. Mr. Feld, the president of the company �KEGOC� was previously the deputy of the chairman of KCB. The companies affiliated with KCB control 25% of stock of the JSC �Kazakhtelecom�.
In our opinion, it is not just coincidences. Possibly, this example will help us to answer the question asked in the beginning of this article.
Who is behind CTC and �Caravan�?
Let�s pay attention to advertisers of these mass media�
Alexander VOLNYANSKY
ALMATY, June 22
(Specially for THE GLOGE)
In the West, games and entertainment bring 8% and more of the revenues to the budgets of different countries. It is a total industry, to which it is profitable to invest money. Citizens and states gain a stable profit from this industry. This industry is organised at a very high level. Many other branches of economy benefit from supplying the gambling industry including production of high-quality gambling equipment, decoration of gambling premises, advertisement, training of the personnel, etc.
What about the gambling business in Kazakhstan?
One of the reasons of underdevelopment of this business in the republic is the illiterate tax policy, which recently existed in the republic. For example, the tax rates for casinos in Almaty were the highest among the all ex-soviet countries. Of course, that did not promote the development of this kind of business and the replenishment of the budget. At the same time, the current system of taxation on gambling machines allowed to pay such a tax amount, which a taxpayer prefers to pay.
For example, the check of the subjects exploiting gambling machines conducted by the Almaty Tax Committee on the results of 1998 revealed a great difference between the taxes paid by different subjects of this market. Honest taxpayers monthly pay taxes on exploitation of a single gambling machine more than some dodgers � in a year. This difference is of millions tenge. It is extremely significant, that in the result of 1998 out of 40 subjects registered in Almaty which exploit gambling machines with money award, 39 subjects had a loss.
Does any Almaty tax officials think, why it happens so? The current situation does a lot of harm. First, the state received fewer taxes; second, the conditions of activity of these subjects are not equal; third, there is a visible example for imitation � it is possible not to pay taxes and live quietly.
Those people who are trying to conduct their business in a civil way should apart from other things incur expenses towards maintenance of the gambling halls in a good condition, towards rendering additional service to the clients, purchasing new computer software, renewal of gambling machines buying modern samples from professional firms-producers in other countries, etc.
All the rest do not take care of these problems. These people take everything easy, live taking care of today only. The main thing for these people is to gain profit today and desirably without extra problems. These people do not care of either created condition for their clients or condition of their machines.
Why should they buy expensive equipment in the West, when they may purchase the similar one in Almaty? It is good, that local �skilled craftsmen� have established their own production of gambling machines. It is possible to buy these machines, or to lend, but the main thing that these machines are �cheap and enough�. Besides, these businessmen do not care that this gambling machine is rather alike an elementary black box, than modern gambling equipment.
However, �the producers� are satisfied with this situation. They may just take plywood, make holes of a definite size, make a box, and paint everything with black, install a monitor, software, and buttons � that is enough � the machine is ready. In the southern capital several hundreds of such gambling machines are being exploited, and the number of these machines is steadily increasing. But how they are exploited, if there is any profit for the state and for the society is questionable.
In other countries the state organisations regulate activity of the gambling business through the observation of the principle of reasonable sufficiency, obligatory payment of taxes and observation of requirements of the modern design of the equipment.
In our country maximum to what the state may pay attention is collection of taxes. But if there is a correct tax policy, it is okay. In connection to this, I would like to hope that the new taxation order introduced from June 1999 will allow honest taxpayers to develop their activity successfully, and the state will gain stable tax revenues.
The taxation problem is not a single problem of this business. Isn�t it high time for the state to pay attention to other problems?
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