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Aliaksandr Sasnou: Fight on parasitism in Belarus cannot be combined with civilized approaches

04.04.2015  |  Economy   |  EuroBelarus Information Service,  
Aliaksandr Sasnou: Fight on parasitism in Belarus cannot be combined with civilized approaches

The decree “On preventing social dependence” will not give Belarusan economy significant supply of money, whereas people will get a lot of problems.

On April 2 Aliaksandr Lukashenka finally signed a “long-awaited” Decree No.3 “On preventing social dependence”. People have already named it “Law on parasitism”.

Let us recall that this document establishes the responsibility of Belarusan citizens, foreign citizens, who live in our country permanently, and stateless persons, who didn’t take part in funding state expenses or took part in such funding less than 183 days a year, to pay the fee of 20 base amounts. To put it simply, if you had official employment for les than 6 months and, accordingly, didn’t pay taxes, please pay a tax for non-paying taxes.

Entrepreneurs, craftsmen, lawyers, notaries, representatives of rural tourism and other activities stipulated by the Decree, as well as students enrolled in full-time education, and some other categories of citizens are exempted from the tax.

EuroBelarus” Information Service asked the former Minister of Labor Aliaksandr Sasnou to comment upon this know-how of Belarusan authorities.

- What will realization of this decree give to Belarus’ economy and people?

- It will give insignificant inflow to the budget and a lot of problems for people, all the more that the decree isn’t flexible at all and gives no variants. It presupposes work for no less than 183 days a year. I.e., if a citizen has worked 182 days, he would still have to pay the tax.

Possibly, there will be long lines to the employment centers. Everyone will rush to them in order to secure himself or herself against the decree’s action. Pressure on employment centers will get bigger and official unemployment will increase. In today’s crisis it will be hard to provide people with employment, as many enterprises cut stuff.

- Perhaps, it will also motivate for creation of fictitious working places…

- Perhaps, as well as other forms of escaping the decree. Our people are good at finding loopholes in legislation.

- Does this decree have future?

- We’ll see. But I think that it will share the fate of numerous similar laws that demonstrate its inefficiency and are forgotten.

- How is this fight on parasitism combined with the right for labor, right for rest, and human rights in general?

- It isn’t. Fight on parasitism in Belarus cannot be combined with civilized approaches.

- Why do we need this decree?

- This is not a question to me, but to its elaborators. Basically, this is an attempt to deprive people of the last they have.

- Do the measures stipulated by this document avert social dependence?

- This problem is easy to resolve. We need to introduce non-free medical aid, education, and municipal services. And then we won’t have any social dependence.

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