AKIPRESS.COM - Anchoring fiscal policy to keeping public debt below 60 percent of GDP in the medium term and reducing it further thereafter to rebuild fiscal buffers for future shocks has been recommended by IMF staff mission following visit to Kyrgyzstan.

This entails lowering primary fiscal deficits from an estimated 4.2 percent of GDP in 2022 to 1 percent of GDP by end-2027.

More revenue could be mobilized by reducing tax exemptions, strengthening taxation of e-commerce, adjusting specific taxes to inflation, raising excises on tobacco and petroleum, and continuing to improve tax administration through e-filing, taxpayer registration, risk-based auditing and expanding the use of cash registers.

The 2021 tax code reform is a forgone opportunity to implement some of these measures and should be revisited.

Since the Kumtor gold mine is now fully state-owned, it should comply with the same tax regime as other gold mines, while channeling its dividends to the budget would provide much-needed fiscal resources. A tax amnesty or new preferential tax regimes could result in additional revenue loss. The IMF stands ready to provide technical assistance on tax policy and tax administration reforms.