News

18.06.2020

Tightening the Emergency: What Should Business and Kazakhstanis be Prepared For

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According to the speaker, tougher sanctions will primarily affect those, who have previously been held accountable.

Kazakhstan intends to toughen the punishment for non-compliance with the state of emergency, says the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Business Ombudsman, Shyngys Temir, to LS.

According to him, a bill is currently being held in the Senate “On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of Kazakhstan on Mortgage Loans in Foreign Currency, Improving Regulation of Payment Services Market Subjects, Universal Declaration and Restoring Economic Growth.”

“If it is adopted by the Senate in its current version, then, fines for repeated violation of the state of emergency during the year will double: from 10 to 20 MNU (to 55.56 thousand tenge). The maximum term of arrest will also be doubled from 15 to 30 days. A repeated violation of the state of emergency excludes a warning - there will be a fine or arrest,” Temir explained.

He also noted that the new amendments would give law enforcement and local executive bodies the right to detain, deliver and prohibit the operation of vehicles and ships. In particular, the car or the car shop of the offender may be in the parking lot. At the same time, Temir said that this year over 12 thousand people have already been brought to administrative responsibility under Article 476 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Among them, in addition to entrepreneurs, there are ordinary citizens.

“The toughening of sanctions primarily applies to those, who have already been held accountable. Given that it is impossible to apply such a measure as a warning, when re-committing an offense, we expect massive fines,” the expert warned.

Temir added that due to the new amendments, those [entrepreneurial] activities that will continue to work during emergencies may be affected in the first place. According to him, this will affect grocery stores and those who sell essential goods. In addition, in response to a question about corruption risks, the speaker said that they would remain at the same level.

“Given that the size of sanctions is small, compared to fines for violations of sanitary doctors’ orders during the quarantine period (100 MNU for small businesses, 200 for medium and 500 for large), I do not see significant corruption risks,” said the speaker.

At the same time, the expert noted that the bill also proposes to amend paragraph 2 of Article 359 of the Civil Code, thus, referring to the state of emergency as a force majeure circumstance.

“In general, we support the president’s order, and moreover, we were the initiators of the recognition of a state of emergency as a force majeure event before the introduction of this regime in the country,” Temir added.

According to him, the recognition of the force majeure circumstance of the state of emergency will allow entrepreneurs, without judicial intervention, to achieve exemption from property liability for violation of obligations (penalties, fines, forfeits). Temir noted that this provision does not exempt from fulfillment of the obligation itself.

“We and some other participants in the meetings of the Mazhilis (Lower House of the Parliament) working group on this bill proposed a more detailed wording, which would exclude questions of the responsibility of entrepreneurs for default in the period after the state of emergency,” the speaker complained.

Temir also recalled that many activities remain banned or with significant restrictions at the moment. According to him, entrepreneurs engaged in these types of activities have already faced the impossibility of fulfilling their obligations both during the state of emergency and in quarantine effective after its termination.

“I think that no matter what the final version of the law turns out to be, the authorized bodies will prepare fair explanations in this regard,” he expects.

 

Ekaterina Zhuravleva

Source: https://lsm.kz/uzhestochenie-chs-k-chemu-dolzhny-byt-gotovy-biznes-i-kazahstancy

LS

«...Domestic business, the so-called national bourgeoisie, should be supported in every possible way, and those who prevent its development by unreasonable inspections, extortions, raids should be strictly punished...»

Statement from the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at an enlarged meeting of the Government on 15 July 2019

Zhursunov R.M.

Ombudsman for the Protection of the rights of Entrepreneurs of RK

The blog of the Ombudsman for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan was created for you to have an opportunity to appeal directly to me and I hope that it will contribute to a constructive dialogue between us – send me feedback, share opinions, make suggestions. All your comments without exception will be read by me.

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