Kazakhstan Crypto Miners Now Subject To Higher Electricity Charges

• The rate varies according to the cost and availability of the electricity needed to mine.
• Crypto farms that use renewable energy will likewise be awarded the lowest tariff.

Cryptocurrency miners in Kazakhstan have been subject to a progressive scale. For the calculation of their monthly power fees as of January 1. The first universal fee, implemented in the summer of 2021, was 1 Kazakhstani tenge ($0.002) per kilowatt-hour (kWh). But it may currently exceed 25 tenge (above $0.05).

The rate varies according to the cost and availability of the electricity needed to mine cryptocurrencies. In July of 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a bill into law that amended the country’s Tax Code, instituting a new process to decide the tariff.

Rewarding Renewable Energy Use

The tax is calculated based on the miner’s average power cost for the tax year. According to the most up-to-date rate scale cited by Interfax Kazakhstan and other local media, a corporation would be charged a minimum price of 1 tenge per kWh if its use was more than 24 tenge.

Crypto farms that use renewable energy will likewise be awarded the lowest tariff, regardless of the price of the power they use. For alternative energy, the tax burden rises as electricity costs decrease. According to the reports, the rate may reach 25 tenge per kilowatt-hour.

After China began cracking down on mining in 2021, crypto miners began flocking to Kazakhstan for its cheap, subsidized power. There is a rising power shortfall in the nation, which is being blamed on the entrance of mining corporations.

It is the intent of a new law passed by the Kazakh parliament in December to force mining companies to purchase their excess power from the state-run Kazakh Electricity Market.