Kazakhstan to impose 5 percent social tax on industrial enterprises from January 1

/IRBIS, Nov.29, 99/ - According to PRIME-TASS, Kazakhstan will impose 5 percent social tax on industrial enterprises from January 1, 2000, which is to be used to replenish pension fund, said the sources in the government to PRIME-TASS on Monday. Kazakhstani specialists calculated that augmenting the tax on enterprises from 21 to 25 percents would increase the revenues of the budget up to 20 bln tenge /1 dollar - 137.67 tenge/. Some experts believe that strengthening of tax burden will, in the best case, cause tax evasions or increase in production costs, and in the worst case, halt of industrial enterprises. Negative estimates are backed by the data of statistics agency of Kazakhstan. According to these data, 42.5 percent of buildings require remodeling, 42.7 percent of machinery and equipment are obsolete. Obsolescence of fixed assets in processing industry reaches 46.1 percent, in construction - 43.7 percent, in transportation - 43.5 percent.