Kazakhstan backs unified tax treatment for quasi-state bonds worth 17.6 trillion tenge

September 7, 2026 at 09:02 PM2 min

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Kazakhstan's Project Office on Tax Code implementation supported a unified approach to taxing quasi-state sector bond transactions at its 27th meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin. The move aims to remove a tax barrier that currently disadvantages off-exchange sales of bonds acquired on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. The quasi-state tenge bond market in circulation totals about 17.6 trillion tenge.

Key Facts

The 27th meeting of the Project Office on Tax Code implementation was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin.
The quasi-state sector tenge bond market in circulation totals about 17.6 trillion tenge.
Non-residents held an average 8.1% share of government securities over the last eight months of 2026, implying potential non-resident investment of about 1.4 trillion tenge in quasi-state bonds.
Deputy Chair of the National Bank Aliya Moldabekova noted that capital gains on quasi-state bonds sold by non-residents on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange are exempt from taxation.
Kazakhstan plans to expand the list of securities available through Euroclear and Clearstream to include quasi-state sector bonds.

Tax Disparity

Current legislation exempts capital gains when a non-resident sells quasi-state sector bonds on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. However, the same exemption does not apply when those bonds are subsequently sold outside the Kazakh exchange. Deputy Chair of the National Bank Aliya Moldabekova drew attention to this discrepancy. The difference becomes more pronounced as foreign investor access to Kazakh securities expands through Euroclear and Clearstream.

Euroclear and Clearstream Access

Kazakhstan plans to expand the list of securities available through international depository infrastructure to include quasi-state sector bonds. Non-residents are expected to hold a significant portion of such securities through Euroclear and Clearstream. Transactions between foreign investors within these systems do not pass through Kazakh trading and settlement infrastructure. In another scenario, a non-resident sells securities to a Kazakh market participant through an off-exchange OTC transaction, where the exemption for organized market operations also does not apply.

Market Scale

About 17.6 trillion tenge of quasi-state sector tenge bonds are in circulation. Participants used the average non-resident share in government securities over the last eight months of 2026, 8.1%, to estimate potential foreign demand. If a similar share materializes in quasi-state bonds, potential non-resident investment could reach about 1.4 trillion tenge. The tax differences are therefore seen not as a technical detail but as a potential barrier to foreign capital and a constraint on circulation of Kazakh bonds through international depositories.