Article 74. Term for Application for, Consideration and Issue of, Permit for Emissions

1. Applications shall be filed at least four months prior to expiry date of the current permit or prior to commissioning of a new facility.

2. Within one month following the registration of the application, the environment protection authority shall consider completeness of the materials submitted with the application. Within this term some additional documents may be requested in respect to the application submitted. After one month, the application shall be either accepted for consideration or rejected due to incompleteness of the submitted materials.

3. Accepted applications shall be considered by the environment protection authority within not longer than four months from the date of registration of the application, upon expiration of which an emission permit, or a reasoned rejection of the application by reason of non-compliance with the requirements of this Code, shall be issued.

Article 75. Basis for Issue of Emission Permits

1. An emission permit shall be issued to a nature user for a Categories I and II project, provided the following requirements have been met:

1) all the necessary documents and materials as set out in Article 72 of this Code have been submitted;

2) draft of emission standards corresponds to the requirements of this Code;

3) the environmental impact assessment prove that emission standards and terms and conditions of nature use meet the environmental requirements and standards established by the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

4) the environmental protection plan corresponds to the environmental requirements and standards established by the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and ensures that emission standards will be met; and

5) production environmental control programme corresponds with the requirements established by this Code.

2. An emission permit shall be issued to a nature user for a Category III project, provided that such nature user:

1) has submitted all necessary documents and materials as set out in Article 72 of this Code;

2) draft of emission standards corresponds with the requirements of this Code;

3) environmental protection plan corresponds with the environmental requirements and standards established in the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and ensures achievement of emission standards;

4) environmental control programme corresponds with the requirements established by this Code.

3. An emission permit shall be issued to a nature user for a Category IV project, provided that such nature user has submitted the required application and declaration of notification.

Article 76. Term of Emission Permits

Emission permits shall be issued for a period until the applied technologies, or the conditions of nature use as prescribed in the permit, are changed, but not exceeding:

1) three years for nature users of Category I projects; and

2) five years for nature users of Categories II, III and IV projects.

Article 77. Refusal, Suspension or Cancellation, of an Emission Permit

1. The emission permit issuing agencies may refuse an emission permit, if:

1) the information submitted in order to obtain a permit is incomplete or untrue; and

2) the requested conditions of nature use are inconsistent with the requirements prescribed in Article 73 of this Code.

2. An emission permit may be suspended by the issuing agency for a term up to three months in the following cases:

1) it is established that the information provided by a nature user is untrue and contains errors in calculations of emission standards; and

2) a nature user has violated the nature use conditions as prescribed in the permit, environmental requirements and standards established by the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

3. The issuing agencies may cancel an emission permit in the following cases:

1) regular violations (more than three violations within the term of the permit) by a nature user of the nature use conditions as prescribed in the permit, environmental requirements and standards established by the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

2) failure to rectify, within the prescribed period of time, those violations which had caused suspension of the emission permit;

3) causing significant environmental damage and threatening health and life of the population; and

4) upon execution and issue of a new emission permit.

4. An emission permit shall be suspended or cancelled within one month upon occurrence of the events set out in paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article, by delivery to the nature user of a notice in writing indicating the reasons for such decision and/or terms for rectification of the violations. Receipt of the notice shall terminate the right to the special nature use.

5. An emission permit shall be cancelled from the date of issue of a new emission permit.

6. If the nature user rectifies the violations specified in the notice, the emission permit shall resume in force and effect upon receipt of a confirmation from the agency which had taken the decision to suspend the permit.

Article 78. Procedure for Reissue of an Emission Permit

1. An emission permit may be reissued in the following cases:

1) change in the regime of nature use, which requires an adjustment in the permitted emission limits; and

2) change in the activities of a nature user and/or change of the form of incorporation, or technology.

2. An emission permit shall be reissued based upon presentation of the following documents:

1) certificate of registration (re-registration) of a legal entity;

2) certificate of a taxpayer;

3) statistical card; and

4) act of inspection confirming change in the regime of nature use.

Article 79. Complex Environmental Permit

1. A complex environmental permit is a single document that certifies the right of a nature user to emissions, conditional on application of the best available technologies and compliance with the technical specific standards of emissions as prescribed by the environmental laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

2. The lists of the best available technologies for certain processes or industries shall be developed by the environment protection authority in consultation with the concerned central executive agencies, other legal entities, and shall be approved by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

3. The list of types of industrial facilities, for which a complex environmental permit may be issued in place of an emission permit, and the procedure for issue of such complex environmental permits, shall be defined by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

4. Apart from the information specified in Article 70 of this Code, a complex environmental permit must indicate:

1) conditions of resource and energy conservancy;

2) waste management system;

3) actions and measures to operate the facility in emergency situations which pose a hazard to the environment; and

4) term and conditions of introduction of the best available technologies.

5. A complex environmental permit shall be valid until the applied technologies and conditions of nature use as prescribed in the permit are changed.

Chapter 9. Environmental Audit

Article 80. Environmental Audit

1. An audited entity shall be an individual or a legal entity that concluded an environmental audit agreement with an environmental auditor or environmental audit firm.

2. The environmental audit shall be conducted by way of analyzing reports of an audited entity with regard to the environmental impact.

3. In the context of the environmental audit, special studies and measurements may be conducted in order to:

1) check the reliability of submitted environmental impact reports;

2) assess compliance of the production process with the environmental requirements;

3) assess compliance of the production monitoring and control with the environmental requirements; and

4) evaluate the level of employees’ qualification.

4. The relations between environmental auditors, environmental audit firms and audited entities shall arise out of an environmental audit agreement, in accordance with the civil laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.