In Kostanay, a case of illegally charging residents for services that should be provided free of charge when connecting to gas has been identified. Following an inspection, the company was fined and ordered to return the unlawfully obtained money to citizens.
According to MIА "Kazinform", the department of the committee for regulating natural monopolies of the Ministry of National Economy for the Kostanay region reported that an unscheduled inspection of the activities of the Kostanay Production Branch of JSC "QAZAQGAZ AIMAQ" was carried out back in 2024. The basis for this was an application from the regional prosecutor's office.
The inspection concerned the legality of charging fees for initial connection to gas distribution systems, gas supply activation, and sealing of metering devices.
"According to the Law 'On Natural Monopolies', a monopoly entity is obliged to ensure equal access to regulated services and is not entitled to impose additional requirements not provided for by legislation. The list of stages for connecting to networks, established by Article 24 of the Law, does not contain grounds for payment for gas supply activation and sealing of meters," the statement said.
Nevertheless, the inspection established that the "QAZAQGAZ AIMAQ" branch was charging money for these services. From January 2022 to December 2023, paid connection services were provided to 11,909 consumers. The total amount was 118.9 million tenge.
Based on the results of the inspection, the company was brought to administrative liability under Part 4 of Article 164 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. By resolution of the authorised body, JSC "QAZAQGAZ AIMAQ" was fined 5.9 million tenge.
At the same time, the department obliged the company to return the illegally obtained funds to consumers.
Recall that earlier, the Aktobe branch of JSC "Intergas Central Asia" was fined 1.2 billion tenge for environmental pollution.