Department of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition (APDC) of the Mangystau Region has initiated an investigation into the car park of Aktau International Airport.
According to the department's press service, the case will be investigated on suspicion of price gouging and violation of competition principles. The reason was the increase in cost: parking for more than 15 minutes incurs a charge of 500 tenge.
"Preliminary results indicate a possible abuse aimed at extracting excess profits by charging money from the public using airport services", the statement said.
If violations of antimonopoly legislation are confirmed, the airport will be issued a directive to terminate the concession agreement or amend its terms.
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For reference: concession – an agreement under which the state transfers property rights to a particular asset to a private company for a specified period.
Recall that in March, it was reported that Pavlodar airport attempted to purchase vehicles at inflated prices. The organisation planned to buy two trucks for 64.4 million tenge, a vacuum truck for 46.4 million tenge, and a dump truck for 31 million tenge.
However, the cost of such specialised equipment turned out to be significantly lower than stated. For example, the average market price for a vacuum truck is 21 million tenge, and the approximate price of a dump truck is 25 million tenge. After intervention by Anticor volunteers, the purchase was cancelled.
In June, financial violations were identified at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in the capital. The airport purchased equipment for much more than planned. Initially, sweeping and blowing machines were to be bought for 936 million tenge, but ultimately 1.3 billion tenge was spent. In turn, airport representatives explained this by stating that the financial and economic feasibility study for the project was developed in 2020, and prices have risen since then.