At an extraordinary session of the Ust-Kamenogorsk City Maslikhat, deputies reviewed proposals to amend the city budget.
Due to a decline in tax revenues, a decision was made to optimize expenditures in certain areas, while ensuring that projects already under implementation—including those carried out under the Participatory Budget program—will continue and be completed.
The decline in revenue is attributable to a number of factors, including:
- changes in taxation regimes;
- the abolition of advance payments for certain taxes; and
- other related factors.
In particular, the reduction in revenues is associated with changes to the following tax categories:
- Corporate Income Tax (CIT):26 large business taxpayers were transferred from paying taxes to the city budget to paying them to the national (republican) budget. The transfer criteria include an average annual workforce of more than 250 employees and/or an average annual income exceeding 3,000,000 times theMonthly Calculation Index (MCI). In addition, the income threshold triggering mandatory monthly advance CIT payments was increased from 325,000 MCI to 600,000 MCI;
- Individual Income Tax (IIT):the tax-exempt deduction was increased from 14 MCI to 30 MCI;
- Local taxes (land tax and vehicle tax):a decrease in revenues was recorded due to the abolition of advance tax payments for legal entities.
These changes formed the basis for revising the revenue side of the city budget and require a redistribution of expenditures.
