The Kazakhstani parliament's April 2 adoption of a law on amnesty of individuals involved in shipment of unreported money abroad ended one of the most controversial issues, which had triggered a wide public resonance in the country. The law is designed to inject additional funds into the economy of Kazakhstan by curbing capital flight from the country and returning the money shipped out of the country abroad by illegal means during the years of privatization. According to the law, individuals who wish to legalize their money are given a twenty day grace period during which they can transfer their funds in either foreign or national currency to bank accounts in Kazakhstan. People who use the chance granted by the amnesty law in time will not be asked uneasy questions about the sources of their income. Moreover, their legalized capital will not be taxed and in some specific cases, those who have committed minor economic crimes are likely to be pardoned.
Banks guarantee a strict confidentiality concerning the deposits of the amnestied persons.
However the amnesty does not apply to individuals charged with big-scale corruption crimes or persons who had been under criminal investigation before the adoption of the law. Both the government and parliament realize very well how serious the problem of uncontrolled flow of capital is for a country in transition. The adoption of the law was preceded by a six months long heated debate in both chambers of the national parliament. The initial question centered around the question whether people involved in hiding away their ill-gotten fortune should ever be pardoned. But in the face of acute shortage of funds in the economic and social sectors, amnesty of capital turned out to be the only sensible thing to do.