APDC SUMMED UP THE RESULTS OF THE HALF-YEAR AND DISCUSSED FURTHER PLANS

A meeting of the board of the agency with the participation of territorial departments was held under the chairmanship of the chairman of the agency for protection and development of competition (APDC) Marat Omarov.

At the board meeting, chairman of the APDC Marat Omarov summed up the results of the first half of 2023 and outlined the necessary measures to implement the tasks set for the agency.

According to the results of the half-year, positive dynamics was formed in the main areas of the agency's work.

In particular, since the beginning of the year, 48 investigations on violations of antimonopoly legislation have been completed, and 33 more cases are being investigated. Unfair market entities were fined in the amount of more than 3.5 billion tenge. The courts are considering more than 40 antimonopoly cases. Based on the results of joint work with the participation of law enforcement agencies, 15 billion tenge was collected to the budget (for the 1st half of 2022 and 2023). Thus, there is both an increase in the number of investigations carried out and an increase in the amount of fines imposed. The practice of conducted investigations and their consideration in courts is being improved.

At the same time, the main direction of the agency's activities remains the development of systematic measures and qualitative analysis of commodity markets. The main goal is to rid them of monopolies and develop competition.

By eliminating intermediaries on behalf of retail energy supply organizations in the wholesale electricity markets, direct access of industrial consumers to the resources of power plants was ensured, which led to direct costs of млрд 4.5 billion. and made it possible to reduce the amount of more tenge. In connection with the introduction of the institution of a single buyer of electricity and the emergence of new risks in the context of market monopolization, legislative measures have been implemented to increase the transparency of trading, ensure equal access of a single buyer to electricity and regulate prices for its services.

In the wholesale market of municipal coal, direct access of regional coal dead ends to coal deposits was ensured, which led to their losses of млрд 5.6 billion. "I'm sorry," he said. In the energy coal market, measures will be taken to introduce direct regulation of prices of key market participants due to its monopoly position and opaque pricing.

The agency continued to work on reducing single operators. Within the framework of a special law, it is proposed to regulate the activities of 17 operators included in the relevant register. Also, a pool of operators was created, which should be transferred to the competitive environment.

In addition, when working out the legislation, the agency identified 17 new operator functions. In this regard, at the initiative of the agency, the Prime Minister instructed the president to submit a proposal to introduce a moratorium on the creation of single operators for consideration.

A comprehensive analysis of the market for the provision of food retail services has been completed. Based on the results of the analysis, barriers to entry into the retail market were identified, as well as 27 facts of violation of legislation in the field of regulation of trade activities.

In addition, from March 2022, the agency will carry out a new function – monitoring the activities of persons providing state support measures to make them equally accessible to market participants. Based on the results of monitoring the activities of local executive bodies conducted on behalf of the territorial departments of the APDC, notifications were issued to akimats in five regions (Mangistau, Pavlodar, Kyzylorda, East Kazakhstan region, West Kazakhstan region) on anti-competitive signs. It was found that in these regions, M & E decisions were made that limited competition under the same conditions, which resulted in equal access to state support measures.

The chairman of the agency noted that the most important task is to increase the coverage of individual entrepreneurs with state support measures on competitive principles. Noting that when large businesses receive support, there are issues of "personalization of state support measures", in this regard, the head of the agency instructed the territorial departments to strengthen monitoring work.