Shadow grain market brings losses to Kostanay exporters

Exporters of Kostanay region are claiming that the number of lawsuits for invalidation of deals and double tax burden is increasing. According to them, it takes them a lot of time, energy and money to prove their case. They tried to understand the situation at a meeting of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kostanay region, the World of NAN reports referring to the NCE Atameken.

"Procurement is carried out all over Kazakhstan in large quantities. Accordingly, there are many suppliers, among whom there may be unscrupulous counterparties. On the agenda: how to reduce the tax risk when doing business and protect honest businesses from being drawn into the orbit of litigation," - said the director of the regional Chamber of Entrepreneurs Daniyar Kuzenbayev, opening the meeting.

As it turned out the reason for the lawsuits most often is the refusal of farmers from the very fact of sale. Recently the Chamber of Entrepreneurs managed to "fend off" four deals and defend the rights of an exporter who faced this situation when purchasing safflower from peasant farms in the West Kazakhstan region.

"In the course of cameral control employees of the Department of State Revenue took explanatory statements from these farms, and they explained that they did not sell safflower to our company. The issue of invalidating the transaction arose. We pulled up all the documents that had payment orders indicating non-cash payment. If they didn't sell, on what basis did they receive the transfer? After these arguments, the state revenue bodies refused to send a claim to court," said Samat Sadvakasov, deputy director of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

But a company that bought cattle worth 450 million tenge from the North Kazakhstan Region was much less fortunate. The company paid for the goods in cash, which was confirmed by a receipt. Nevertheless, the farmer rejected the transaction, and it was declared invalid in court. As a result, the company incurred a loss of 150 million tenge and is now on the verge of bankruptcy.

Why do peasants frame exporters? This is often done by middlemen who do not grow or produce anything themselves. They buy goods from neighboring farms or import them from abroad by "gray" schemes and sell them to large companies, which then receive all the tax burdens.

"We, flour mills, are producers, not resellers, we pay taxes. We buy grain in large volumes. We cannot know for sure if a farmer grew the grain himself or brought it from somewhere else. And then the tax inspectors take up a lot of our time with their inspections. Is it really impossible to control the import of "gray" grain at the border?", Vidadi Yusubov, the general director of Best Kostanay LLP, spoke.

According to Shinkuskhan Yesmukhanov, representative of Kostanay's State Revenue Department, the tax authorities do not have such authorities, they cannot check on the territory of the border checkpoints. However, the issue is already being discussed. If it is resolved positively, representatives of tax authorities will be able to inspect trucks and to weigh the grain, which is imported into the territory of Kazakhstan.

"Now the government has received a complaint from the Grain Union of Kazakhstan. To date, Kazakhstan's agrarians bear large losses because of illegal flows of grain products. Their volumes are quite significant. This affects the prices on the domestic market, because cheaper products imported from the Russian Federation market does not allow to increase the value of locally produced products. Taking into account the costs of our farmers, the margin suffers significantly," explained Shynkuskhan Esmukhanov.

Be that as it may, grain traders and flour mills can't independently trace the origin of the goods, which means they bear certain risks. As of today there are 7 lawsuits in Kostanay's courts to acknowledge deals invalid. And the judicial process, as you know, is time and money. In order to reduce the costs of entrepreneurs, at the initiative of Atameken, a Commission for pre-trial settlement of disputes on filing lawsuits for invalidation of transactions was established under the DSR of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

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