President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a meeting with the richest people in the country, many of whom are members of the Forbes list. He threatened to block the outflow of money to offshore companies.
The fact that such an unpleasant meeting for the oligarchs should take place became clear immediately after the riots that took place in Kazakhstan in early January. When the situation stabilized a little, Tokayev addressed the people in Parliament. A separate part of his message was devoted to the richest people.
“Thanks to the first President – Elbasy (ACCA: “Elbasy” is translated as the leader of the nation; this is a life-long status assigned to Nursultan Nazarbayev), a group of very profitable companies and a stratum of rich people appeared in the country, even by international standards. I believe that the time has come to give the people of Kazakhstan their due and help them on a systematic and regular basis. The government will have to determine the list of companies and agree with them on the amount of annual contributions to the Fund,” Tokayev said at the time.
What fund he was talking about became known at the same meeting in Parliament. Tokayev instructed the government to create a public social fund “To the People of Kazakhstan”, which will deal with problems in the field of healthcare, education, and social support.
“Of course, we expect significant regular contributions, I emphasize, regular contributions to the Fund from large businesses,” Tokayev said.
A few days later, the Fund received about $44 million from 75 legal entities and large businessmen, as well as about $67,000 from citizens of the country – mainly government employees and employees of budgetary organizations.
But the pressure on the oligarchic groups that got rich under Nazarbayev didn’t end there. At the meeting on January 21, Tokayev hinted to many people that the time has come to share and share.
“International experts say that only 162 people own half of Kazakhstan’s wealth. While half of the population’s monthly income doesn’t exceed $114. That’s just over $1,300 a year. It’s almost impossible to live on such money. As I said, such stratification and inequality is dangerous. The situation must be urgently changed!” Tokayev told the oligarchs.
He once again reminded about the new Fund and expressed the hope that businessmen would support this initiative.
“I emphasize once again that this is not a budget fund, it’s a Fund of the people of Kazakhstan. Therefore, its work should be built without long bureaucratic procedures, reinsurance when making decisions, etc. Assistance must be specific, prompt and targeted. All major companies will annually contribute a government-determined percentage of taxable income to the Fund that will engage in useful charitable activities. I hope that the business community will sincerely support this initiative, and also help the Fund in the implementation of projects,” Tokayev noted.
In order for the meeting participants to be more accommodating in this regard, the president had to resort to covert threats.
“For 10 years, the share of taxes in the structure of the country’s GDP has decreased from 9.9% to 7.3%. As you understand, the payment of taxes by the largest companies is very poor. We have the data of specialized bodies, and they testify that profitable giants evade paying full taxes under various pretexts. I instruct the Prime Minister to finally deal with this problem and provide the treasury with the funds due to it. Otherwise, strict measures will be taken. And then, you have only yourself to blame!” the President openly declared.
Another threat is the fight against monopolists and those private traders who have bought the right to perform a number of state functions.
“First of all, it’s necessary to analyze the artificially created monopolies. Operators, especially private ones, should be a thing of the past. If you remember, there used to be such a term – “farmers”. For an appropriate fee, a private company bought the performance of a number of economic functions of the state. It didn’t lead to anything good. I instruct the government to ensure that such activities are prohibited by law. All niches must be open to competition. Numerous intermediary chains artificially created in the markets should be eliminated. It’s an old problem that no one wants to solve. We need a tough policy to de-oligopolize the economy. Oligopoly is a constant desire to diversify business in the same hands, but not to diversify the country’s economy. That is, the same person or the same company mines, processes, operates banks, carries out some other businesses, and the rest are at their beck and call. People wonder, ‘Why did all kinds of business end up in the same hands?’ This causes depression,” the President said.
He also noted that in addition to allocations to the Fund, large businesses will have to take care of ensuring social stability.
“We produce too many economists, lawyers, managers and others. Now it’s necessary to focus on technical education. Kazakhs, young Kazakhs, must be technicians. This is my strong opinion. If each financial and industrial group creates a modern plant, trains a thousand or two young people from villages, suburbs, gives them the opportunity to earn honestly, this will be already a serious guarantee of social stability,” Tokayev said.
It should be noted that not all the richest people of Kazakhstan were present at this meeting. So, for example, Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, wasn’t at the meeting. Last year, Kulibayev topped the list of the 50 most influential businessmen in the country and was fifth in the ranking of the 50 richest people in Kazakhstan. His estate was estimated at three billion dollars in 2021. In addition, until January 2022, Kulibayev headed the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”. However, after the January events, he, as well as other sons-in-law and relatives of Nazarbayev, voluntarily left his post.
As for the meeting participants, there were the following businessmen: Vladimir Kim ($4.7 billion. One of Nazarbayev’s close associates); Mikhail Lomtadze ($3.9 billion); Bulat Utemuratov ($3.5 billion. Former adviser to Nazarbayev and one of the people of his inner circle); Timur Turlov ($2 billion); Erlan Nigmatulin (brother of the speaker of the lower house of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nigmatulin); Kenes Rakishev ($ 950 million. He is the husband of Asel Tasmagambetova. She is the eldest daughter of Imangali Tasmagambetov who is a Kazakh politician and one of the approximate to Nazarbayev); Alexander Belovich ($500 million); and many others. The main thing, that connects all these richest people, is family, friendship or business with Nursultan Nazarbayev and his family members.
That is, the country is now undergoing an active redistribution of finances and spheres of influence between the clans and associates of Nazarbayev and Tokayev. Recently, the youngest daughter of Nazarbayev was forced to donate to the state the company that had collected recycling fees from car owners.
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