Kazakh Parliament deputy Azat Peruashev addressed a request to Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev and Prosecutor General Zhakip Asanov to give a full report on the sum of funds returned from the offshore zones to Kazakhstan's economy, Kazpravda.kz correspondent reports.
The MP reminded that the fight against corruption and illegal withdrawal of capital into offshore zones is one of the Ak Zhol party’s priorities, given which the faction repeatedly raised these issues.
"It should be borne in mind that the funds illegally withdrawn from the country tend to be of a corruption origin - for example, when a state company purchases medical equipment that 4 times surpasses Kazakhstan’s price, with payment through the Marshall Islands, as indicated in one of the Accounts Committee’s reports, " he said.
The deputy stressed that this money is lost for the country; it is not invested in the economy, does not create products and jobs.
"The volume of such losses is shocking and comparable with the annual GDP of the republic - we cited the data of the Tax Justice Network international organisation that the outflow of capital from Kazakhstan to the offshore in the 20 years of independence is the sum of about $ 140 billion. In 2016, the Prosecutor General's Office announced the amount of $ 100 billion withdrawn from the country over the past 10 years, "the MP continued.
Peruashev also cited the National Bank’s data, where the gross outflow of direct investment abroad over the past 10 years made about $ 113 billion, of which $ 58.5 billion went to offshores, and all this is only the amount through official transfers. "We can only guess about the amount of shadow withdrawals. The society is entitled to know about concrete results in this direction, "he added.
The society wants to know how much money was returned from offshore zones to the economy of Kazakhstan, how many attempts of illegal withdrawal of the capital into offshore zones were stopped during this period and how much money was prevented from withdrawal (as a result of these preventive actions) from Kazakhstan, Azat Peruashev said.
Reported by Jania Urankaeva for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
