When Dirk Aleven with FoodVentures invested in Kazakhstan, he probably didn't expect to be faced with a 1 million USD fine. The investor, engaged in tomato growing, was importing the equipment to the country, when the customs service and the State Revenue Committee conduced an unannounced inspection. Upon the results of the check, the investor has been calculated 350 million KZT of additional customs service, to which he protested.
The reason for the fine was that since the glazing for the greenhouse was imported from China and the rest of the equipment comes from the Netherlands, corrections needed to be made to the declaration form. The dispute between the investor and the customs authorities was brought to the appeal court of the Ministry of Finance. As a result, the penalty has been cancelled.
"Thanks to the excellent help of the Anti Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan, and the Dutch Embassy of the Netherlands in Kazakhstan, this penalty was overruled and cancelled", Dirk shares. "A big compliment to those who are supporting the reforms in Kazakhstan for us the starting signal for a follow-on investment of 10 million EUR!"