Jasyl Damu JSC collected a record 306 billion tenge in recycling fees last year. Only a modest 3.5 billion tenge was spent on the company's main tasks: ecology and recycling. In other words, out of every one hundred tenge in recycling fees, only one tenge reached its intended purpose. But where did the rest go?
According to Nege.kz, 85 billion tenge was allocated for the purchase of fire and rescue equipment for the Ministry of Emergency Situations, another 17 billion tenge was directed towards special vehicles for road construction, and 15 billion tenge was used to buy buses. However, the construction of household waste processing plants, which is a priority task in the environmental sector, received minimal funding.
But that's not all. Of the total revenue, 122 billion tenge was spent on the state company's operational activities, and the remaining funds after tax were placed in financial instruments.
Specifically, the company purchased government bonds worth 114 billion tenge - meaning a state-owned company essentially lent money to its own state.
120 billion tenge was placed in bank deposits, and the company also participated in REPO operations (agreements to sell securities with an obligation to repurchase them) and overnight (short-term interbank loans for one night) facilities.
The income from these operations amounted to 36 billion tenge - not bad at all for a company that is supposed to be dealing with ecology.
So it turns out the Ministry of Finance solved its borrowing problems, banks got cheap money, but ecology was left with nothing in this whole scheme. Instead, 'Jasyl Damu' seems to have transformed from an environmental operator into a regular investment company.
Incidentally, as Nege.kz writes, the company does not publish detailed reports on its activities. Want to know where your money from recycling fees went? Too bad.
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For reference: recycling fee — is a mandatory payment collected from manufacturers and importers of vehicles and machinery, either imported or produced within the country, to finance the subsequent disposal of these goods and the processing of waste.
It is worth recalling that the issue of reforming the recycling fee system became particularly relevant in 2024. In May, a petition entitled "For the growth of people's incomes! For the development of industry!" appeared on the platform epetition.kz, whose authors argued "for the active development and support of local production".
The initiative was supported at the time by representatives of major industrial enterprises, including 'Qarmet', the Karaganda Foundry and Machine-Building Plant of the 'Kazakhmys' group, companies of the 'Imstalcon' group, and the 'QazTehna' plant. However, the petition did not receive support, partly due to the movement's initiator, Sanjar Bokayev, repeatedly failing to attend working group meetings and lacking a well-developed argument.
In June 2024, First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar, responding to criticism of the use of recycling fees, stated that the funds were directed towards environmental projects, including the construction of waste processing plants, the purchase of fire-fighting equipment, and the renewal of fixed assets for the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
However, the financial report data clearly shows that the declared priorities are not adequately reflected in the expenditure structure.
And yet, a much better use could have been found for this money, as the editorial board of FBRK stated a year ago. Take agriculture, for example — there is an acute shortage of modern machinery. Or create a proper waste processing system, which we still don't have. But instead, the recycling fee feeds the banks and covers government loans.