A joint session of the Chambers of Parliament was held with the participation of Maulen Ashimbayev, the Senate Chairperson, and Nurlan Nigmatulin, the Mazhilis Speaker. The Parliament Deputies approved the 2020 Reports on the Republican Budget Performance made by the Government and the Accounts Committee. The Parliament also heard the Address of Kairat Mami, the Chairperson of the Constitutional Council, referring the state of constitutional legality and the speech of the Prime Minister Askar Mamin about the measures taken by the Government for the social and economic development of the country.
Olga Perepechina, the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, made a supplementary speech on the Reports on the Republican Budget Performance. She focused on the most important aspects of the republican budget performance.
“The transfer from the National Fund is growing annually in the revenues of the republican budget: it was 40% in 2020. There is still no confidence in the improvement of the situation with the pandemic, and the volume of government obligations is growing, spending on the social block already accounts for more than 40% of the expenditure of the republican budget. In crisis times, this is a forced and justified step. But against the background of a drastic change in the global economy, it is necessary to search for new sources of non-mineral income and revise approaches to managing the funds of the future generation, the “safety cushion” of our country,” Senator Olga Perepechina said.
In addition, in her report, she emphasized the need to define the concept of a new budgetary policy, develop new approaches to principal simplification of tax and customs administration based on digital solutions, and ensure maximum public transparency of planning and utilization of external borrowed funds.
The key proposals made by Olga Perepechina also included: exclude intermediaries from the supply chain for affordable loans to business community, return funds unused for years to the budget and redistribute such funds to other priority areas.
At the joint meeting, the senators also asked their questions to the members of the Cabinet. Thus, Sergey Karplyuk raised the issue of the deficit in the balance of payments and stressed the importance of taking measures to improve the situation as soon as possible.
“Last year, the current account of the balance of payments was formed with a deficit of US$ 6.3 billion. It should be noted that Kazakhstan has the largest current account deficit of the balance of payments among the EAEU countries. The deficit in the balance of payments has been observed since 2015. This state of affairs illustrates quite well our dependence on imports and the lack of realization of our export opportunities,” the Senator said.
Senator Abdaly Nuraliyev raised the question about the problems of rural development and measures for rural financing. He spoke about the importance of revising the approaches and priorities for the development of auls, stressing that despite a number of specialized state programs, not all of the goals had been achieved. 36% of auls do not have centralized water supply, 105 villages use imported water. More than 45% of local highways need repair, the wear of power supply networks is 58%.
Senate Deputy Olga Bulavkina raised the issue of ensuring the transition of our country to a “green economy”. This is important, given that the share of renewable and alternative energy sources should be increased to 15% by 2030. However, according to the Senator, there are currently no incentive preferences to control greenhouse gas emissions; the technology is expensive and the equipment in the energy sector is highly deteriorated. All this slows down our transition to a “green economy”.
In addition, Senators Nurtore Zhussip and Dana Nurzhigitova raised some problematic issues of the compulsory health insurance system and ensuring the safety of children.
Following the consideration, the Parliament approved the 2020 Reports on the Republican Budget Performance made by the Government and the Accounts Committee.
(Senate Press Service, 74-72-27)
