Amendments to Laws in Kazakhstan

Amendments and additions to existing laws were signed today by Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The national press agency stated the changes are aimed at improving banking law, as well as legislation on insurance and Islamic finance.

Laws, in particular Tax Laws need to be updated to accommodate Islamic finance as tax neutrality between Islamic financial products and conventional products is needed to provide a fair and balanced tax playing field. Without such updates Islamic finance products would face heavy taxation because they involve multiple transfers of the assets backing them.

Islam is the largest religion practiced in Kazakhstan, as 70.2% of the country’s population is Muslim according to a 2009 national census.

Islamic Finance Interest is CIS Countries

Islamic finance is a developing fast in former Soviet Union countries, most of whom now form the Commonwealth of Independent States. Of these the Tatarstan Republic has displayed recent interest and signed MOUs with Malaysian organisations. The first sovereign Sukuk in the Russian Commonwealth with the issuance in 2012 of the Development Bank of Kazakhstan sukuk for 240 Million Malaysian Ringgit, which was issued in Malaysia.