Kazakh Businesses Overpay Nearly 500 Billion Tenge For Employee Insurance, MP Says

MP Aidarbek Khojanazarov appealed to Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, criticizing the compulsory employee insurance system and saying small businesses overpay insurance companies by billions of tenge, Orda.kz reports.

According to him, companies with minimal employee risk pay almost the same amount as enterprises with hazardous production.

An ordinary IT company with a payroll of about five million tenge must pay 85,000 tenge for insurance, although the economically justified payment is 14,500 tenge. The difference simply goes to insurance companies. An entrepreneur approached me — the owner of a small accounting firm with four employees. They have not had a single accident in 15 years, but the company still pays 85,000 tenge every year. This money could have been used to raise salaries or upgrade equipment,the MP said.

He noted that in 2025, insurance companies collected 136 billion tenge in insurance premiums but paid only 45 billion tenge to affected employees. He also criticized the increase in fines for lack of insurance. According to him, small businesses can be fined almost 700,000 tenge, while medium-sized businesses can face fines of up to 1.7 million tenge.

Khojanazarov added that the state spends large amounts of money on the insurance system every year, which, in his view, works in the interests of insurance companies.

Today, we have the opposite: the lower the risk, the greater the overpayment. If the minimum threshold is lowered and a risk-based model is introduced, the state will be able to save more than 120 billion tenge per year. That money could fund dozens of new schools, hospitals, roads, and salary increases for public-sector employees. If the reform is postponed until 2030, the state will overpay at least another 480 billion tenge,the MP said.

In this regard, he called for the current insurance system to be revised and the burden on businesses reduced.

We ask you to reconsider the minimum insurance premium, reduce the burden on small businesses, and publish data on the income and expenses of insurance companies over the past three years,Khojanazarov said.

He added that the current system is unfair and forces companies with a low risk of workplace injuries to overpay for insurance.

Original author: Alina Elgeldina

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