Kazakhstan Launches Pilot Project Showcasing CBDC Programmability

According to Odaily, Kazakhstan has initiated a new pilot project to demonstrate the programmability of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, has made significant progress in handling Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds. Binur Zhalenov, the Chief Digital Officer of NBK, shared on LinkedIn that the use of the digital tenge CBDC in business-to-business transactions has automated the tagging of VAT, reducing the waiting time for exporters' refunds from 70-75 days to 10-15 days. The goal is to achieve instant refunds in the near future. This efficiency improvement is attributed to the tax authorities of the State Revenue Committee eliminating manual checks. Zhalenov also mentioned that pilot projects are being developed to adopt the digital tenge in public procurement, targeted financing by the national sovereign wealth fund, and investment subsidies.