The petition of citizens of Kazakhstan for the resumption of the previous time zones will be rejected. According to Interfax, Deputy Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Balykbayev made this statement at public hearings.
«I am now announcing the preliminary decision of the Ministry of Trade and Integration, it is to refuse to heed the petition,» Balykbayev said.
A working group under the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan is currently addressing this issue. According to the Deputy Minister, the activists’ arguments about the negative impact of this innovation on public health and power consumption have not been confirmed.
Until March 2024, Kazakhstan had 2 time zones: UTC+5 and UTC+6, with most of the regions located in the UTC+6 zone. On March 1, 2024, Kazakhstan established the 5th time zone (UTC+5) on the whole territory.
The decision to unify the time zones caused discontent among citizens of the country, and the petition posted on the E-Petition.kz portal for the resumption of the previous time zones has collected 50,000 votes, which is enough for the petition to be submitted to the Ministry of Trade and Integration for consideration.
