News

19.08.2020

Office of the Business Ombudsman and “Atameken” are for the compliance of the mask regime

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The Ministry of Justice sent the concept of the draft law “On Amendments and Additions to the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses” to the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken.”

The Deputy Head of the Office of the Business Ombudsman, Shyngys Temir, wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“First of all, we note that we support restrictive measures, including social distance, mask mode, regular disinfection of business facilities.

But it is important to note here that fines for violations of both the mask regime by citizens and other quarantine measures by businesses, in our opinion, are too harsh.

Firstly, we were initially against the strengthening of liability under Article 425 of the Administrative Code. The fine for small businesses increased 11 times (from 20 to 230 MNU), the rates for medium and large businesses are even higher. Citizens are fined not by 10 MNU, but by 30. The fines should be commensurate with the severity of the offense, and it is illogical to attract a person for 84 thousand tenge for leaving a mask at home (in Kazakhstan, the minimum wage is half).

Second, on August 5, the Ministry of Justice sent the concept of the draft law “On Amendments and Additions to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Kazakhstan” to the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken.”

The concept states that the size of the fine for violation of sanitary and epidemiological requirements in terms of the mandatory wearing of medical masks is beyond the strength of citizens and requires revision. In this regard, Article 425 of the Administrative Offenses Code proposes to withdraw such a composition of the offense into a separate part with a fine of 1 MNU, and if the violation is repeated, a fine of 2 MNU is imposed.

On August 7, we replied in writing to the Ministry of Justice that, of course, we support this amendment. Moreover, we consider it necessary to make changes in terms of reducing the amount of fines against business entities (at the same time, I note that the mask regime must be observed in any case).

The concept also compares the amount of sanctions for violation of the mask regime during the quarantine period:

- Russia (Moscow) - 28.6 thousand tenge (minimum wage is 70 thousand tenge);

- Uzbekistan - 9.2 thousand tenge (minimum wage is 28 thousand tenge);

- Ukraine - from 2.6 thousand to 3.8 thousand tenge (minimum wage is 72 thousand tenge);

- Tajikistan - from 4.7 thousand to 11.8 thousand tenge (the minimum wage is 16 thousand tenge);

 

- Azerbaijan - 24.7 thousand tenge (minimum wage is 61 thousand tenge);

- Kazakhstan - 84 thousand tenge (minimum wage is 42.5 thousand tenge).

As you can see, from the above examples, only in Kazakhstan the fine for violation of the mask regime is twice the minimum wage.

I repeat once again: we are for the compliance of the mask regime and other necessary sanitary measures. But, we are still against fines that are disproportionately high compared to the violations committed.

And we still offer to discuss!” - wrote Shyngys Temir

More details: https://inbusiness.kz/ru/last/ofis-biznes-ombudsmena-i-atameken-za-soblyudenie-masochnogo-rezhima

«...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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