Officials who unjustifiably impose fines on businesses could be held accountable in administrative procedure. The relevant bill has been posted for public input at the initiative of the Business Ombudsperson.
As noted in the explanatory note to the bill, practice shows that cases of unjustified application of fines by regulatory bodies remain frequent, and there is no accountability for such actions now.
According to the Office of the Business Ombudsman:
- in 2024, 6370 complaints were received from businesses regarding unlawful fines. Of these, 5280 were upheld by the courts, resulting in the cancellation of fines totaling approximately 1.4 trillion soums;
- in the first half of 2025, 4738 complaints were received, of which 3755 were also upheld, and fines totaling approximately 3.1 trillion soums were canceled.
The bill underscored that the lack of accountability created conditions under which officials of regulatory and law enforcement agencies apply financial sanctions without sufficient grounds, while not being held accountable.
Most of the businesses' complaints are considered by courts in their favor, and trillions of soums in fines are being canceled. This problem requires a systemic solution.
The bill has proposed inserting a new article 241-11 to the Administrative Liability Code (Unjustified imposing financial penalties on business entities by an official of a controlling, law enforcement, or other state body and state organization, if they are deemed illegal by the court). The penalty for this is a fine of from 20 to 40 basic calculation units (from 8.24 million to 16.48 million soums).
During the preparation of the bill, the legislation of other countries had been studied. In Kazakhstan, the official shall be liable for damages, while in Germany, the state and the relevant institution where the employee works shall be accountable. However, if intentional actions or gross negligence are established, the state may file a recourse claim against the guilty official, that is, recover the amount of damages from them.
Discussion of the bill will continue through November 9.
