Die Deutsche Welle reports that prosecutors of the Saryashag district of the South-Kazakh region accuse Energosbyt Tashkentelektroset of unlawful functioning on the territory of Kazakhstan. The Uzbek company is said to have been smuggling electric power into the neighbor country for years.

According to Saryashag District Prosecutor Abutalip Mustafayev, the settlement of Dostyk-2 (Zhartyobin rural district) has been receiving electric power from Uzbek power lines since 1999. Almost 300 villagers and three budget organizations (school and two ambulance stations) are paying Energosbyt Tashkentelektroset.

Payments to the Uzbek company were made in Uzbek sums until recently. The cost of electric power in Uzbekistan meanwhile is considerably lower than in Kazakhstan. Prosecutors would like to know what happened to the budget money the organizations in question have been receiving all these years to pay for electric power by Kazakh tariffs.

Kazakh prosecutors mentioned several corpus delictis at once. The Uzbek company smuggled electric power into Kazakhstan (1), it was involved in illegitimate entrepreneurship without registration with tax structures (2), it operated without the license as required by the acting Kazakh legislation (3).

On the other hand, prosecutors themselves admit their helplessness because the settlement is not connected to any Kazakh power lines. Mustafayev said the matter had been brought to the attention of the district akimat [administration] on several occasions but to no avail.