What entry to Kazakhstan's national parks cost: MCI and tariffs, 2015–2026

Apply today’s rates to past years and park entry would have more than doubled between 2015 and 2026: the MCI (monthly calculation index, МРП) that tariffs are based on rose from 1,982 to 4,325 tenge, up 118%. What actually happened was different. Until October 2024 the Charyn and Kolsai park tariffs were written in tenge and stayed frozen for seven years at 500 tenge per adult per day. The link to the MCI — 0.2 MCI per person and 0.7 MCI per passenger car — arrived only with Order No. 232.

Key findings

• MCI 2015 → 2026: 1,982 → 4,325 tenge, a 2.18-fold rise. In 2020 and 2022 it was changed mid-year.
• Charyn adult visitor: 500 tenge a day from 2017 to October 2024, never indexed. Measured in MCI, the fee fell from 0.22 MCI (2017) to 0.135 MCI (2024).
• From October 2024: 0.2 MCI. That was 738.4 tenge in 2024 (+48% on the old 500) and is 865 tenge in 2026.
• The 0.7 MCI car entry fee is new. Under the 2017 and 2020 orders a car paid only for parking: 100 tenge a day at Charyn, 200 at Kolsai.
• We could not confirm the tariffs before 2017 — see the methodology section.

What the MCI is and why entry depends on it

The monthly calculation index is an amount set each year by the republican budget law. Benefits, fines, state duties and — since October 2024 — republican national park tariffs are calculated from it. Our explainer on the MCI covers the index itself.

The entry formula is simple: the rate in the order × the current year’s MCI. If the rate is written in MCI, the tenge amount changes by itself every 1 January. If it is written in tenge, it stays put until the ministry issues a new order. That difference is why price articles go stale so fast.

The MCI year by year, 2015–2026

Every value comes from the relevant republican budget law on adilet.zan.kz.

Two years break the pattern.

2020. Law No. 276-VI set 2,651 tenge from 1 January and 2,778 tenge from 1 April. Both clauses use the same wording — for benefits and social payments, “and for fines, taxes and other payments” — so from April the new value applied to all payments.

2022. Law No. 77-VII set 3,063 tenge from 1 January for benefits, fines, taxes and other payments, and 3,180 tenge from 1 April, but only “for benefits and other social payments”. For payments, 3,063 tenge stayed in force all year. Park fees were unaffected: in 2022 they were still in tenge.

What Charyn charged: three orders in a row

Republican park tariffs are approved by a separate order with one appendix per park. Since 2017 three such orders have applied to Charyn.

In 2017 the line was called “provision of tourist trails, viewpoints and bivouac sites”. In 2020 it was renamed “sanitary cleaning and landscaping services”, and Order No. 232 kept that name. In practice it is the same visitor charge.

*2024 shows the value after Order No. 232 took effect (published 8 October 2024, in force ten calendar days later). From January to October 2024 the fee was 500 tenge.

The striking part is seven years of one number. Between 2017 and 2024 the MCI rose from 2,269 to 3,692 tenge (+63%) while entry stayed at 500 tenge. In MCI terms the visit got cheaper: 0.220 MCI in 2017, 0.135 MCI in 2024. Switching to 0.2 MCI roughly restored the 2017 level in relative terms. For visitors, though, it looked like a 48% jump overnight.

Cars: from 100-tenge parking to a separate fee

For vehicles the change is sharper. The Charyn appendices of the 2017 and 2020 orders contain no “passenger car entry” line at all. There was only parking: 100 tenge a day for a car, 200 for a bus. Order No. 232 added a separate entry scale: 0.4 MCI for motorcycles and quad bikes, 0.7 MCI for cars, 2.7 MCI for minibuses up to 16 seats and lorries, 5 and 8 MCI for buses. Parking stayed too, at 0.05 MCI a day.

In 2024 entry plus one day’s parking for a car came to 0.75 MCI — 2,769 tenge instead of the old 100 tenge for parking.

For organised groups the gap is wider still. Under the 2020 order a bus at Charyn paid only for parking, 200 tenge a day. Under Order No. 232 a bus with up to 32 seats pays 5 MCI to enter and one with more than 32 seats 8 MCI, plus 0.1 MCI a day for parking. In 2026, 5 MCI is 21,625 tenge. Group excursion prices from before and after October 2024 are therefore not directly comparable.

The chart above is pure arithmetic: what a 0.7 MCI rate would have meant had it applied every year. For 2015–2023 these are not real prices, only a measure of how the MCI moves the amount.

Kolsai Lakes: the same pattern

Appendix 16 of the 2020 order for the Kolsai Lakes park repeats Charyn’s per-person grid: 500 tenge per adult, 375 per student, 250 per schoolchild, free for pre-school children and people with disabilities. Parking there was dearer: 200 tenge a day for a car and 600 for a bus. Under Order No. 232 Kolsai got the same 0.2 MCI per person and 0.7 MCI per car, with parking at 0.06 MCI. More on the park on our Kolsai Lakes page.

Each park has its own appendix, so the Charyn rate cannot simply be copied to a neighbour. All protected areas are compared in the entry tariffs table.

Table: 0.2 and 0.7 MCI in tenge by year

Once more: this is a calculation, not the actual past tariffs. It shows what today’s rates would have cost at each year’s MCI.

One coincidence stands out. In 2019, 0.2 MCI was 505 tenge — almost exactly the flat 500 tenge then charged. Had the MCI link been introduced that year, visitors would barely have noticed.

What a couple pays in 2026

Two adults in a car for one day: under Order No. 232 that is 0.2 + 0.2 + 0.7 = 1.1 MCI for entry, plus 0.05 MCI parking. At the 2026 MCI the entry part is 4,757.5 tenge. The park’s transport down into the canyon is charged separately, 0.2 MCI per seat one way. Any combination can be worked out in the national park fee calculator, and what exactly you pay for is broken down in what Charyn entry really costs.

Methodology and limitations

MCI. Values are taken from the current versions of the republican budget laws on adilet.zan.kz (article 7, 8 or 9 depending on the year). For 2020 and 2022 we checked the wording of both dates, 1 January and 1 April. The 2017 law has a clause “from 1 July 2017”, but it concerns pensions; the MCI did not change.

Tariffs. We used the texts of three orders on adilet.zan.kz: No. 17-1/158 (2017, as amended in 2018 and 2019), No. 27-5-6/253 (2020, as amended in 2022) and No. 232 (2024). The 2022 amendment to the Charyn appendix changed only a category name (“persons with disabilities”); the amounts stayed. The 2020 order expressly repealed the 2017 one (appendix 24).

Calculation. The tenge amounts for 0.2 and 0.7 MCI are multiplication, not quotations. For years when no MCI-based rate applied they are hypothetical.

Paid park services (guides, yurts, filming) are not included; their rates are on the park services page.