Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government on Tuesday to hike the cryptocurrency mining tax rate and crack down on illegal miners amid electric power shortages and blackouts in the Central Asian nation.

The former Soviet republic claimed the world's No.2 spot for Bitcoin mining activity last year, but the influx of miners, especially from China after Beijing outlawed the activity, has strained its energy grid.

"The current tax of 1 tenge ($0.0023) per kilowatt-hour is negligible," Tokayev told a government meeting, ordering his cabinet to raise it and propose a new framework on mining regulation by April 1.

Tokayev said some miners were still buying electricity at inadequately low prices and evading taxes and customs duties. He ordered the authorities to look into where profits from mining were monetised.

($1 = 428.1300 tenge)

(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Jason Neely)