The government of Kazakhstan did not support an initiative to cap acquiring fees for small businesses at 0.5%. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin stated this in response to a parliamentary inquiry, Kursiv.media reports.
Initiative context
In late September, Respublica party deputy Ruslan Idrisov proposed setting a maximum tariff for accepting cashless payments at small retail outlets. The initiative covered the sale of socially significant and basic food products.
According to the inquiry’s authors, the net margin of convenience stores is 8–12%, while the acquiring fee ranges from 1.5% to 2.5%. The deputies pointed out that card servicing costs take up a significant portion of microbusiness profits. According to their data, about 40,000 small shops supply food to 7.5 million rural residents.
Arguments against a strict limit
Zhumangarin explained the rejection of the administrative limit with economic reasons. The government’s position is that a uniform 0.5% tariff could restrict market competition and reduce banks’ incentives to install POS terminals and develop digital services. Financial institutions might also shift lost acquiring revenue onto other banking services.
The fee size depends on many factors, including the interbank payment (interchange). In October 2022, the National Bank of Kazakhstan agreed with Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay on a phased reduction of marginal interchange rates for mass cards: to 1.5% from early 2024 and to 1% from January 1, 2025.
According to the deputy prime minister, competition is already yielding results: over the past 7–10 years, average acquiring fees have dropped from 2.8–4.5% to the current 1.2–2.8%.
Alternatives for retail
Instead of direct tariff regulation, the government suggests retailers use the interbank mobile payment system. Accepting payments via QR codes is cheaper for entrepreneurs. For example, Halyk Bank offers a 0.5% fee for payments through Halyk QR and interbank QR.
Additionally, the state subsidizes part of the interest rate on loans for domestic trade. According to official data, 232 convenience stores received financial support for working capital replenishment and modernization totaling 18.5 billion tenge.
Zhumangarin also noted that the trade markup on socially significant food products is already legally capped at 15% for all sellers without exception, making separate acquiring rules for small shops impractical.
