Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Financial Monitoring (AFM) Zhenis Yelemesov spoke about amendments to the country's legislation.
According to informburo.kz, it is planned to decriminalise several criminal articles. Firstly, from article 219 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – "Illegal obtaining of a loan or misuse of a budget loan", which caused damage of more than 2,000 MCI (7.3 million tenge), they want to remove the punishment of imprisonment of up to 2 years.
At the same time, the article will not be transferred to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Kazakhstan (CAO).
“The justification and intended purpose of subsidies are checked by regulators in the form of authorised bodies and organisations. They resolve all disputes within the framework of civil proceedings, including the recovery of funds. In our case, due to the lack of an institution of pre-investigation checks, many objective and subjective circumstances are clarified after the registration of materials in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations,” said Zhenis Yelemesov.
Secondly, they want to decriminalise article 241 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan – "Violation of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on accounting and financial reporting", which caused major damage to a citizen in the amount of more than 200 MCI (738 thousand tenge) or to an organisation in the amount of more than 2,000 MCI. The article will be transferred to the CAO of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the punishment will remain the same.
“Based on practice, I can say that a minor mistake by an accountant can turn into a long and exhausting investigation for a bona fide entrepreneur. Therefore, we see it as expedient to transfer it to the category of administrative responsibility. That is, to supplement Part 6 of Article 239 of the CAO of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” said the Deputy Chairman of the AFM.
At the same time, the authorities plan to partially decriminalise the criminal articles 234 “Economic contraband” and 236 “Evasion of customs duties, customs fees, taxes, special, anti-dumping, and countervailing duties”. The AFM wants to raise the threshold of criminal liability provided for by these articles, but not transfer them to the CAO.