Kazakh MP proposes dropping 250-worker threshold from large business criteria

September 23, 2026 at 02:01 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Ak Zhol deputy Dauran Akhmetzhanov has asked Deputy PM Serik Zhumangarin to revise how Kazakhstan defines large businesses. He proposes removing the 250-employee threshold and using only annual income and asset value. The current code classifies firms with over 250 workers or income above 3 million MCI as large.

Key Facts

Ak Zhol deputy Dauran Akhmetzhanov sent a parliamentary inquiry to Deputy PM Serik Zhumangarin on September 23, 2026.
The current Entrepreneurial Code classifies firms with over 250 employees or annual income above 3 million MCI (about 13 million tenge) as large businesses.
Akhmetzhanov proposes removing the employee count as a standalone criterion and using only aggregate annual income and asset value.
The deputy also proposes analyzing how many enterprises are classified as large solely due to employee numbers and assessing the impact of moving them to medium business.
Ak Zhol previously proposed raising the upper limit for medium business from 3 million to 6 million MCI in a November 30, 2023 inquiry.

Proposed Criteria Change

Akhmetzhanov argues that employee count does not always reflect a company's real economic scale. He notes that labor-intensive production or services may have many workers but relatively low income and assets. In contrast, capital-intensive production with a small staff can produce significant output and pay more taxes. The deputy states that creating new jobs should not become grounds for imposing additional requirements on business.

Current Legal Thresholds

Under paragraph 6 of Article 24 of the Entrepreneurial Code, large business entities are those with average annual staff over 250 people or average annual income above 3 million MCI. The 3 million MCI threshold equals about 13 million tenge, according to Kursiv. LSM.kz reports the same threshold as 12.9 billion tenge. A company can be classified as large solely because it employs more than 250 people, even if its income and assets do not match large business scale.

Party Position and Next Steps

Ak Zhol emphasizes that the proposal does not weaken business requirements or reduce taxes. The goal is to more accurately determine a company's real scale and avoid obstacles to growth and job creation. The inquiry quotes President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: "If existing instruments are ineffective, they need to be adjusted. Ultimately, this is not sacred scripture." Akhmetzhanov proposes amending Article 24 of the Entrepreneurial Code after analyzing the impact of reclassifying affected enterprises.