The office of the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan announced the results of the implementation of the Pilot Project on a simplified refund of the amount of excess VAT to grain market entities that signed the Memorandum in the field of agro-industrial complex for the 1st quarter of 2022, Uchet.kz reports.
This is the first result of the Pilot Project. Currently, 20 companies have joined the Memorandum, of which 7 are exporters and 13 are suppliers.
2 exporting companies - Grain partners LLP and ASG Export LLP - refunded VAT in the amount of 15,749 thousand tenge. It should be noted that the return was made within thirty calendar days.
“The main problems of grain exporters when refunding VAT are violation of the terms of return after signing the inspection report, risks of transfer pricing, refusal to refund VAT on suppliers whose services are not the main statutory activities or are of an auxiliary nature when exporting grain. The failure to use the data of the information system of electronic invoices during tax audits is also one of the main problems,” said Ekaterina Nikitinskaya, Advisor to the Business Ombudsman.
The Pilot Project itself was implemented as a follow-up to the Agreement on Cooperation on Combating Illegal Actions and the Development of Fair Competition in the Circulation of Agricultural Products, which was signed at the V Republican Forum of Entrepreneurs on Combating Corruption on June 4, 2021.
The implementation of the pilot project is a joint policy of the state and business. The purpose of the pilot is to reduce numerous intermediaries and resellers between the agricultural producer and the exporter according to the principle of SHTP - Elevator - Exporter. Such a chain without unnecessary links will become convenient, first of all, for the exporters themselves.
Recall that the parties to the Agreement were the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Atameken", the Association of Legal Entities "Grain Union of Kazakhstan.
“During the implementation of the Pilot Project, such problems were identified as the lack of motivation to join the Memorandum of agricultural producers, elevators, wholesale traders and the appearance of additional labor costs for them. For example, the need to keep records of grain turnover transactions based on the use of a digital asset (token), including its issuance of SHPT with reference to fields, confirmation of its movement along the chain producer - trader - elevator-exporter, ”shared Ekaterina Nikitinskaya.
In the pilot, the issuance and accounting of token transactions become a new burden for SHPT and exporters. Today grain receipts are produced by an elevator. And local SHPTs do not everywhere have the necessary access to the Internet and the appropriate level of computer literacy.
In order to solve the problems identified, it was proposed to reduce the VAT refund period within the pilot to 40 working days, given that the standard verification period is 55 working days.
It was also proposed to extend the Pilot Project on a simplified VAT refund for the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2022.
In the future, it is planned to expand the scope of activities to participate in the Pilot Project.
It should be noted that participation in the Pilot Project is carried out on a voluntary basis by joining the grain market participants to the Memorandum. The rules are purely voluntary and non-binding, any company can join it.
The pilot project provides for a VAT refund in two options, at your choice:
- without conducting an in-house audit within 15 working days under a bank guarantee (for the amount of the claim);
- 100 calendar days after the in-house audit, if there is no bank guarantee.
According to the generally established procedure, VAT is returned within 55 working days (for regular exporters) and 155 calendar days.
As part of the pilot, grain traceability was implemented by:
- accounting for production facilities, storage of grain and the life cycle of grain
- traceability of grain "from the field to the border".
For this, the module “Virtual grain warehouse “AstyqQoima” was developed in the information system “Qoldau” to account for grain turnover operations:
- sowing, vegetation, harvesting by means of satellite images;
- transportation, storage, sale and purchase through ESF, electronic grain receipts.
Also, for advice on joining the Pilot Project, please call: +7 777 705 81 04.