Kazakhstan launches new CBDC pilot to significantly shorten VAT refund waiting time

Kazakhstan has launched a new pilot project to demonstrate the programmability of its CBDC. The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, has made significant progress in the processing of value-added tax (VAT) refunds. According to a LinkedIn post by Binur Zhalenov, chief digital officer of NBK, using a digital tenge CBDC to automatically mark VAT in business-to-business transactions reduces the wait time for exporters’ tax refunds from 70-75 days to 10-15 days,” The goal is to achieve instant tax refunds in the near future.” The increase in efficiency is attributed to the elimination of manual inspections by the tax authorities of the State Board of Revenue. Zhalenov added that pilot projects are being developed to adopt the digital tenge in public procurement, targeted financing from the country’s sovereign wealth fund and investment subsidies. (Cointelegraph)