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. But this idea too was later rejected by the upper house of parliament on the grounds that the tax imposition would scare away depositors from abroad. Some deputies of parliament reasonably argued that legalizing 'dirty' money would be tantamount to endorsing money laundering. The debate on legalization of money brought abroad by fair or foul means took place amid such scandal stories as the sale of Kazakhstan's MIG fighter planes to South Korea and the possible buying up of oil refineries in the Ukraine, issues vociferously highlighted in the national media.
Government officials are rather optimistic about the legalization of capital.
The Ministry of Finance believes money returned to the country will be rationally used to create new jobs to increase the circulating funds of national companies. The main tax sources in Kazakhstan is the huge oil sector which attracts foreign investment from oil tycoons from various parts of the world. It is reported that since 1993 the amount of the investment channeled into various branches of the economy has already reached 11 billion dollars. In a recent interview, the chairman of the National Bank Gennadiy Marchenko predicted ca. But it remains everyone's guess how much money is deposited in various accounts abroad.