Foreign Online Retailers Will Be Subject to Taxation in Kazakhstan

According to Nariman Abilshaikov, the first deputy of the Atameken entrepreneurs’ chamber, all foreign online retailers should pay taxes in Kazakhstan as the local retailers do. Such kind of fiscal equality will be the next stage in local market development. 

As Abilshaikov noted, because foreign online retailers pay no tax in Kazakhstan, they are able to make their prices lower and take advantage of it. Moreover, it might be an uneasy task to take money back if customers from Kazakhstan no longer want a product they purchased because of its low quality or wrong size.  

Another factor is the legalization of those sellers who use social media and do not act as they should.

«We have no data concerning the amount of such trade through social media. They work in a grey zone with no law or tax. And of course, these retailers also take unfair advantages,» he said. 

Lately, Kazakhstan’s government has tried to determine the preferences in online consumption in Kazakhstan. Nine out of ten families in the country have robust access to the Internet, even though only one family out of five purchases products and services online.

Usually, most people in Kazakhstan (60%) buy online such products as clothes, footwear and sports products.  About 25% of consumers also order food. However, there are big differences between various regions. For example, in Nur-Sultan, the capital of the country, roughly 70% of people use the internet to order food on a daily basis. In the Turkestan region, this rate is 53% and only 3% in the Kyzylorda region.