Motorists stand in line at a gas station in Almaty. Archival photo MOSCOW, January 13 The weight of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the rise in price of which was the reason for unrest in Kazakhstan, is insignificant in the overall structure of fuel consumption in the country: the share of gas-powered vehicles accounts for less than 10%, Deputy Head of the Economy of the Fuel and Energy Complex Sectors of the Center for Strategic Research told RIA Novosti (CSR) Sergey Kolobanov «The role of LPG for Kazakhstani private car owners in general is not as great as it is presented in the media,» the expert said. Thus, according to official statistics, as of November 1, 3.795 million passenger cars were registered in Kazakhstan, of which about 88% consume gasoline and 2% consume diesel fuel, and the share of cars that can potentially run on gas account for less than 10% ( including cars for which the type of fuel has not been established in the statistics) .He noted that there are significant territorial disparities: in a number of regions of the country the share of gas vehicles significantly exceeds 10%. «The largest share is registered in the Mangistau region (the regional center is the city of Aktau), where, according to official statistics, about 60% of cars are able to drive LPG and, accordingly, the increase in prices for them twice at the beginning of the year turned out to be the most sensitive», — The expert also recalled that with the production of LPG at about 3 million tons per year, the country's own consumption is, according to various estimates, 1-1.4 million. At the same time, state regulation of wholesale prices for propane and butane remained until the end of last year. Thanks to this, for example, propane at gas stations in Kazakhstan at the end of the year was two — two and a half times cheaper than in Russia. A gradual transition to market prices began in Kazakhstan in 2019 through a gradual increase in the share of LPG sold on electronic trading platforms. 
Experts assessed the losses of Kazakhstan's economy due to unrest Since this year, it was planned to completely abandon direct price regulation of this sector (except for gas for household consumers and petrochemical companies), which is why there was a two-fold jump in prices, the expert explained, while noting that gasoline and diesel fuel in Kazakhstan is still significantly cheaper than in neighboring countries. Thus, the retail price of gasoline there is one third lower than in Russia, almost 40% lower than in Kyrgyzstan and more than 60% lower than in China. This level is maintained not through direct regulation, but through indirect measures: a number of oil producing companies have obligations to supply part of the oil for refining at discounted prices, low fuel excise taxes have been established, and bans on the export of fuel by road are regularly extended; In addition, Kazakhstan has a low VAT rate of only 12%, Kolobanov concluded. during the riots
