Unregistered religious faiths ‘to be liquidated’ by end of year

    By Altynay Zhumzhumina
    All the unregistered religious organizations will be liquidated in Kazakhstan by the end of this year, Tengrinews reports, citing Vice Chairman of Kazakhstan's Religious Agency, Marat Azilkhanov.
    "Now, once the process for the re-registration of religious organizations is finalized, we are working on liquidating unregistered unions via the courts. This is a normal practice. 437 actions have been filed and are being considered by so-called liquidation commissions. Decisions have been made on almost all of the cases already. The process is nearing its end, and before the end of the year decisions will be made to ‘transfer the property and the repayment of tax gaps on nearly all the religious organizations subject to liquidation," Azilkhanov reported in a meeting with senators.
    He reminded those present the re-registration slashed the number of religious unions in Kazakhstan by 32 percent and down to 3,088 as of October last year.
    "1,463 religious unions failed to pass the re-registration for various reasons. The number of faiths reduced from 46 to 17, including as a result of clarification of their classification," he said, according to www.tengrinews.kz.