Adilbek Umraliev, chairman of the board of Qazaq Air, which operates as Vietjet Qazaqstan, has proposed cutting value added tax on domestic flights in Kazakhstan from 16% to at least 10%. He made the statement at the New Silk Way transport and logistics business forum in Astana. According to him, all domestic routes are currently loss-making, and the country should "bring back at least 10%".
According to the airline's calculations, the budget loss from such a cut would be about 15-17 billion tenge (around 30 million dollars) in the first year. Umraliev describes this as a small share of total VAT receipts. International flights are zero-rated, which creates a tax gap between domestic and international carriage. According to him, Kazakhstan has the second-highest VAT on domestic flights in the world, after Germany.
The issue has been raised before: on 19 May 2026 Transport Minister Nurlan Sauranbayev proposed amending legislation to exempt regular flights from VAT. Umraliev's proposal is milder: not a full exemption, but a 10% rate.
Our assessment: carriers keep pushing for tax relief, and a 10% rate rather than full exemption looks like a compromise option for discussion with the state. For lessors financing regional airlines and for investors, the economics of domestic routes depend on it. This is flycentralasia's conclusion, not a statement by the airline or the authorities.