On the eve of the heating season, a meeting chaired by the head of the agency Dmitry Malakhov was held at the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM), with the participation of the Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev and the Chairman of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition (APDC) Marat Omarov.
According to the AFM press service, the agency analysed the activities of three large coal-mining enterprises, where it identified risks of unproductive intermediation and unjustified increases in the selling price of coal. In some cases, the price was increased several times.
In turn, Dmitry Malakhov emphasised that every autumn there is an increase in the cost and a shortage of solid fuel for the population and government institutions.
Data from the APDC also confirm that signs of monopolists setting high prices have been recorded on the coal market of Kazakhstan.
"The APDC will work to create conditions for fair competition and reduce the price burden on consumers. Today, together with our colleagues, we signed an interdepartmental roadmap for the operation of the social coal market. The antimonopoly body, together with the Agency for Financial Monitoring and the Ministry of Finance, are ready to eliminate intermediaries, optimise costs for the population and implement a number of systemic measures that we discussed today, such as control over commodity exchanges, ensuring equal access within the competencies that the antimonopoly body currently has," noted Marat Omarov.
At the same time, Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev stated that there are many intermediaries on the coal market.
"The Ministry of Finance has supported the AFM's initiative to reduce budget expenditures by purchasing coal for government institutions directly from producers," said the head of the Ministry of Finance.
Following the meeting, representatives of the agencies signed a Roadmap, the purpose of which is to eliminate instances of artificial price inflation and coal shortages for citizens.