ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 23. In Kazakhstan, concerns have arisen over Kazakhstan Railways JSC (KTZ, the national company) proposing to raise tariffs for freight transportation, Trend reports.
According to the Parliament of Kazakhstan, deputies have sent a request to the country's Prime Minister, Olzhas Bektenov, urging him not to increase tariffs.
In their message, deputies expressed deep concern over KTZ's application to the Ministry of National Economy for a tariff increase for exports—by 3.89 times in 2024 and by 4.42 times in 2025. They highlighted that this move poses significant risks to domestic exporters, potentially leading to a loss of market share, reduced competitiveness, and production halts.
In response, Bektenov stated that the tariff hike would help alleviate the debt burden on the national carrier.
"The unified tariff of Kazakhstan is the lowest compared to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)—2.2 times lower than that of Russia, 1.6 times lower than Belarus, and 2.4 times lower than Kyrgyzstan, making it advantageous for exporters and neighboring countries importing raw materials at low railway tariffs. This has led to KTZ incurring a loss of 329 billion tenge ($730.666 million) in 2023, of which 172 billion tenge ($381.989 million) came from freight transportation in the mining sector," he said.
According to Nurlan Sauranbayev, Chairman of the Management Board of KTZ, the company's debts have accumulated to 2.9 trillion tenge ($6.49 billion).