Kazakhstan plans to increase tax for miners – Bits Media

The Government of Kazakhstan plans to increase tax fees from mining and tie a rate to the cost of cryptocurrency.

Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Alibek Kuantyrov said, that the country's authorities consider the possibility of increasing tax for mining companies. The tax will be calculated based on the market value of the extracted cryptocurrency. The minister assured, that the implementation of the initiative will significantly increase revenues to the country's budget.

Now Kazakhstani miners are paying only an allowance for consumed energy. Last summer they were obliged to pay more, than other consumers - tariffs are increased to 1 tenge ($0.0022) for kWh electricity.

The Minister of Economics said, that the binding of the tax rate to the cost of cryptocurrency means, that if the prices for a specific asset will increase, the state will receive more money to the budget.

Due to fixed electricity tariffs, Kazakhstan has become an attractive jurisdiction for mining companies, mining bitcoin, when last year the PRC authorities took up arms against the industry. Due to the large influx of miners in Kazakhstan, the energy deficit increased and the government of the republic began to limit this sector of the economy. Even the miners received permission suffered last winter due to interruptions in electricity.

Previously regulatory authorities of Kazakhstan closed five mining companies subsidized by the state. They used tax benefits as innovative startups.