Laboratory Bonetsky (LLC "Intelmed") issued a statement regarding the fine imposed on the company. The decision of the Antimonopoly Regulation Service to recover allegedly illegally obtained income from our company grossly violated the decree of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Sadyr Japarov, on a moratorium on inspections of business entities until December 31, 2024.
The company stated that the calculations made by the Antimonopoly Regulation Service regarding the violation of the Competition Law of the Kyrgyz Republic do not correspond to reality, and they intend to appeal them in court. Furthermore, by providing their decision to the media, the Antimonopoly Regulation Service violated Article 57 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, which states that guilt must be proven in accordance with the law and established by a court verdict.
It is worth noting that in 2020, during the pandemic, the Kyrgyz Republic declared a state of emergency, and PCR tests for Covid-19 became a vital necessity for the population. Our company, the first to respond to the government's request, had to import equipment, reagents, masks, and other supplies at skyrocketing prices to organize PCR testing services for Covid-19.
The sudden increase in demand for PCR testing was due to the pandemic and the mandatory requirement for travelers to have such a test when leaving the country. However, this is in no way related to our company setting monopolistically high prices, as the Antimonopoly Regulation Service is trying to prove in its decision.
In January 2021, the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic approved a price list for state laboratories, coordinated with the State Antimonopoly Regulation Agency. The price for one PCR test was set at 1,574 soms. Interestingly, the activities of only our company raised concerns by the Antimonopoly Regulation Service, despite similar prices in all private laboratories accredited to conduct PCR tests for Covid-19, indicating bias by the organization.
Our company is a major and law-abiding taxpayer, having paid all due taxes and social contributions to the state budget: in 2020 - 86,850,246 soms, in 2021 - 251,019,706 soms, in 2022 - 190,478,804 soms, and in 2023 - 117,006,627 soms. We believe that the Antimonopoly Regulation Service is attempting to deprive businesses of their right to seek protection of their interests in court through such populist information and to preemptively create a negative public opinion about our company's activities.
