Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov reported that over the last three years, violations totalling 37 billion tenge have been identified in Kazakhstan's coal industry.
According to the media, citing the prime minister, the violations were uncovered as a result of tax audits and monitoring of transfer pricing in this sector.
Bektenov noted that coal sales to the public and the municipal-domestic sector are carried out through commodity exchanges, which eliminates unproductive intermediaries and further resale.
"In accordance with the law, the entities subject to oversight include not only commodity exchanges, but also clearing organisations of commodity exchanges and exchange brokers. Furthermore, the remit of the anti-monopoly authority has been expanded to include the power to suspend and revoke the relevant licences of commodity exchanges, clearing organisations and exchange brokers in the event of violations of legislation on commodity exchanges and combating the legalisation (laundering) of proceeds obtained through criminal means," he clarified.
At the same time, the head of government noted that the Ministry of Trade and Integration had adopted an order "On approval of the list of socially significant exchange-traded goods".
"Given the role of the resources included in the list of socially significant exchange-traded goods in ensuring energy security, their trading will be conducted only on those commodity exchanges included in the resolution. <…> As part of the procedure for selecting commodity exchanges, taking into account the competition, strict requirements will be developed for commodity exchanges, the technological level of special exchange software, and the assessment of the information system's readiness to protect against manipulation," the statement said.
Olzhas Bektenov emphasised that in March 2023, the mandatory exchange trading volumes for coal mining enterprises supplying raw materials directly to the public were increased from 10% to 50%.
"Also, in December 2023, an order was approved by the MTI (Ministry of Trade and Integration), providing for the sale of coal by regional affiliation, in which only coal buyers (regional operators) registered within that administrative territory may participate. These measures are aimed at the even distribution and saturation of the domestic coal market, which enabled a favourable passage of the heating season (avoiding shortages and price collusion) and the regulation of the coal market as a whole," the prime minister reported.
At the same time, he added that the authorised agencies had approved a Roadmap for the development of competition in the retail and wholesale coal markets for the municipal-domestic sector.
Furthermore, Bektenov reminded that the mechanism for determining regional coal operators is clearly defined in the exchange trading rules to eliminate corruption risks.
"In accordance with paragraph 235 of the rules, regional coal operators (buyers) are market entities that own a railway siding and technical infrastructure and have obtained accreditation from a commodity exchange based on information provided by local executive bodies. The roadmap also provides for improving the rules regarding the regulation of the procedure for determining regional coal operators by local executive bodies," said Bektenov.