Odaily News Kazakhstan has launched a new pilot project to showcase the programmability of its CBDC. The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, has made significant progress in the processing of value-added tax (VAT) refunds. According to a LinkedIn post by NBK Chief Digital Officer Binur Zhalenov, the use of a digital tenge CBDC will automatically tag VAT in business-to-business transactions, reducing the waiting time for exporters to get refunds from 70-75 days to 10-15 days, “with the goal of achieving instant refunds in the near future.” The increase in efficiency is attributed to the elimination of manual inspections by the State Taxation Committee’s tax administration. Zhalenov added that pilot projects are being developed to adopt the digital tenge in public procurement, targeted financing by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, and investment subsidies. (Cointelegraph)