Currency Regulation

The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 9 January 2012 no. 531-IV ЗРК "On Introducing Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in relation to Currency Regulation and Currency Control Issues" (the "Law") came into force on 28 January 2012 (apart from certain paragraphs), introducing amendments to the Currency Control Law1 and National Bank Law2.

Foreign Trade Contract Registration

The most noteworthy innovation of the Law is its intended simplification of the repatriation of currency control requirements by way of replacing the so-called "transaction passport" with the procedure of assigning contract record number for the foreign trade contract. Before an exporter or importer was required to "open" a transaction passport for any foreign trade transactions amounting to an equivalent of US $50,000 (or more) with a Kazakh bank. The transaction passport was then supposed to be presented to the customs authorities who were obliged to confirm the match between monetary and trade inflows and outflows. According to the new...