Digital Tenge pilot project streamlines VAT reimbursement for exporters (LinkedIn)
The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) in collaboration with the State Revenue Committee (Tax Authority) of the Ministry of Finance has launched a Digital Tenge pilot project focused on value-added tax (VAT) reimbursement for exporters. This initiative leverages the programmability of central bank digital currency (CBDC) to automatically mark VAT in business-to-business (B2B) transactions. By doing so, the need for manual checks by tax authorities, is eliminated, significantly streamlining the reimbursement process. It reduced the reimbursement time from 70–75 working days to 10–15 days, with the goal of achieving instant reimbursement in the near future. In total, approximately 40 billion worth of Digital Tenge is now in circulation in the various pilot projects. [Read more on LinkedIn]
Circle raises fees for large near-instant USDC redemptions (Bloomberg)
Circle increased the fees it charges for near-instant cash outs of its USDC stablecoin on the Circle Mint platform for the second time in 2024. Circle Mint enables wholesale providers such as exchanges, institutional traders, wallet providers, banks, and large financial institutions to directly redeem USDC 1:1 for USD from Circle. Circle Mint is not available to individuals. All USDC redemptions used to be free and unlimited, but in February 2024 a 0.1% fee on near-instant redemptions above $15 million was imposed on Circle Mint customers. Under the new fee schedule, Circle Mint customers processing more than $2 million net in daily redemptions will incur a fee that starts at 0.03% and increases in tranches to as much as 0.10% for redemptions above $15 million. Basic redemption, which offers a fee-free option, regardless of transaction volume, remains available to all Circle Mint customers as well, but processing can take up to two business days. [Read more at Circle]
BTW Tether charges the greater of $1,000 or 0.10% per USDT redemption transaction, and there is a minimum $100,000 redemption amount. Tether reportedly aims to send the funds to the user’s bank account via wire transfer within 1-3 business days. [Read more at Tether]
Upcoming Speaking Engagements:
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And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at john@kiffmeister.com.
