Alma-ata wants to issue 300 mln tenge municipal loan in 1999

/IRBIS, Nov.10, 99/ - As REUTERS informs, akim (mayor) of the city Victor Khrapunov at the press-conference said the administration of Almaty planed to float 300 mln tenge municipal loan till the end of this year. "We have 700 mln tenge internal borrowing limit. Administration of Alma-Ata will prepare the first bonds of an internal loan for an amount of 300 mln tenge till the end of this year. We would like to use this funds for road construction, development of transportation system in the city", said Khrapunov. REUTERS says that city administration is "working out" a question about issuing eurobonds on international markets, however there are some restrictions in the legislation to implement this idea. "Alma-Ata is of big interest of investors, and I think, issue of eurobonds is not too far", said akim of the city. Khrapunov forecasts 83.3 bln tenge of inflow into the budget of Almaty in 1999, and says that in 10 months of this year tax revenues amounted to 80.3 percent of the forecast, 3 percent less than in last year. A reduction is attributed by Khrapunov to "objective reasons" - decrease in custom duty collections due to shrinking turnover with CIS countries, and in particular with Russia by 40.3 percent. He says custom duty collections from Almaty accounts for 43 percent of total custom duty collections. In year 2000 tax collections of the city is planed to be increased up to 99.2 bln tenge, mainly by expanding taxable base and using the funds that "pass by the budget". First 400 million tenge municipal bonds were floated by oil-rich Mangistau region in summer of this year. Last week, another hydrocarbon-rich region, Atyrau, declared its plans to float bonds next year.