The Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) revealed ongoing cases of mass importation of old trucks and buses into the country using fake documents. Suspicions point to employees of special economic zones and government agencies.
Most vehicles in Kazakhstan still run on diesel fuel, contributing to rising air pollution levels. To promote ecological safety, the government incentivizes importing new trucks and buses by reducing registration fees based on the vehicle's age. Unscrupulous individuals attempt to bring old and unsafe vehicles into the country using counterfeit documents, with 23 pre-trial investigations initiated in 2022-2023 alone. The preliminary budget damage amounts to 14.3 billion tenge.
The involvement of 59 officials from special economic zones and government agencies is under scrutiny. Fraudulent schemes for registering vehicles have been identified, including falsifying registration dates and using fake documents to pay lower fees. The FMA has taken measures nationwide to prevent further illegal vehicle registrations. In a recent development on February 23, 2024, a former employee of a special economic zone in Kokshetau was implicated in unlawfully registering vehicles from abroad.
