A meeting of the Business Development and Investment Council under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, chaired by Mr. Asrandiev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, was held on June 3, 2020.
Zarina Chekirbaeva, AmCham Executive Director. voiced the following proposals from the members of the American Chamber of Commerce to be included in the third package of anti-crisis measures:
- To stimulate additional (internal) investments into the country’s economy through the financial resources of the Anti-Crisis Fund for concessional lending to business entities;
- To provide tax incentives for newly created enterprises;
- To suspend the payment of taxes under the contract for representatives of public food services for a certain period of time;
- To introduce a temporary ban (moratorium) on the adoption of regulatory legal acts that exacerbate the situation of legal entities. Namely, two legal acts from the State Committee for Information Technology and Telecommunications of the Kyrgyz Republic and the draft Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On the Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Kyrgyz Republic (to the Code of the Kyrgyz Republic on Violations, the laws of the Kyrgyz Republic “On Competition” and “On Natural Monopolies in the Kyrgyz Republic”;
- To amend the Labor Code of the Kyrgyz Republic pertaining to the regulation of remote working mode. The AmCham had previously forwarded proposals to the Government Office, as well as to the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic);
- To provide for the calculation of utilities (power/water, etc.) for the period of the difficult economic situation for companies falling within the scope of Decision of the Government No. 153 issued on March 17, 2020 at the rate used for private entities;
- To provide low-interest loans or loans with a 0% interest rate for a period of 6 to 12 months to restore the tourism and food services sectors;
- TO SUPPORT ACTING FOREIGN INVESTORS who are subjected to pressure from law-enforcement and fiscal authorities through unreasonable checks. Ms. Chekirbaeva noted that over the past year, there has been observed a tendency, when large taxpayers are faced with pressure and artificially created obstacles in business activities. As an example, she cited the Sky Mobile LLC company, one of the leaders in the market of mobile communication services, against which systematic illegal actions by tax and law-enforcement agencies have been carried out. Following an audit in March 2020, the tax service presented a bill for more than 1 billion 765 million som as tax liabilities! However, despite written and oral arguments and evidence of the unreasonableness of tax assessments, the Company was not heard by the representatives of the tax authority. Ms. Chekirbaeva expressed concern that in the pursuit of short-term benefits for replenishing the budget, no one is thinking about attracting and developing investments within the country and expressed hope that the Government would this issue related to foreign investors under its control.
