During the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on May 29 in Astana, the Heads of Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union signed a Protocol to amend Annex No. 5 to the Treaty on the EAEU, according to which import customs duties paid by Kazakhstan's importers on goods imported under subsoil use contracts and production sharing agreements concluded with investors before July 1, 2010, will not be distributed among the Union states.

The need to resolve this issue was first noted by the highest state financial control bodies of the Union countries following a joint audit of compliance with the procedure for crediting and distributing amounts of import customs duties (such audits are conducted annually in accordance with para. 53 of the above-mentioned Annex).

 

According to Bakhyt Sultanov, Minister in charge of Economy and Financial Policy of the Eurasian Economic Commission, these duties are reimbursed to subsoil users from the budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"Adopting amendments to the Treaty on the EAEU will prevent double expenditures on the Kazakhstan's budget, i.e. reimbursement for investors of duties paid and the transfer of more than 93% of this amount within the mechanism for distributing import customs duties among Union states," the EEC Minister noted.

This rule applies to legal relations that arose from November 1, 2014.