Khurelbaatar Chimed, Minister of Finance, remarked “Since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team’s arrival, we have been negotiating for 5 days. The personal income tax has been raising public frustration. Therefore, we reached a deal with the IMF to revert the marginal tax bracket to effective tax rates. The minimum retirement age has also been reverted for the elders to choose when to retire. We are now working on reforming the General Taxation Law, Laws on Corporate Tax and Income Tax. Business entities are the foundation of the tax system. We will prepare more understanding law for them.”

Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa said “We are allowing the elders to choose retirement at the age of 60 for males and 55 for females. If the individual is working under difficult conditions, they can retire at the age of 55 for men and 50 for women. Secondly, tax brackets have been returned back to the previous rates and the taxes paid in January will be refunded. We chose to work with the IMF.

Accordingly, the economy has showed a sign of recovery and we have repaid the Development Bank of Mongolia’s USD 580 million and 5-year Chinggis bond’s USD 500 million debts on time. Mongolia’s economy falls when commodity prices drop due to the heavy reliance on the mining sector. The reputation of our neighbors in the international organizations also have negative impact. Therefore, we will focus on two objectives. First of all, to maintain financial discipline of public services; and secondly, to stop economic downturn. We will accomplish this by reducing budget expenditure and increasing the revenue I note that national producers’ roles are significant in repaying foreign and domestic debts.” According to the PM, Mongolia’s annual domestic consumption of gasoline is around 1.1 million tons, of which 98 percent is being imported from Russia and 2 percent from China. Therefore, the PM announced to start the construction of an oil refinery in 2018.

Furthermore, PM shared that he is planning to submit a bill on prohibiting the transportation of raw coal to Ulaanbaatar city starting from April 2019 and is estimating the bill will reduce air pollution by 50 percent.

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