Leanid Zaika: It’s not a budget; it’s nothing at all

Budgets have never been fulfilled in Belarus; so there’s no use commenting on such budgets.

After visiting Moscow Lukashenka launched active inner political work. In the course of the following day he held two conferences, confirmed Kabiakou’s appointment as the Prime Minister, as well as the whole membership of the Council of Ministers personally (excluding the arrested Minister of Trade).

After receiving the clear signal to action, the House of Representatives approved the budget for 2016 (only spending 58 minutes for that), introduced the amendments to the tax legislation, imposing new taxes upon people.

Has the trip to Moscow triggered inner Belarusan activity?

Leanid Zaika, the head of the analytical center “Strategia” (“Strategy”), answered the questions of the “EuroBelarus” Information Service.

- Two months after the re-election Lukashenka reappointed the old government to be the new one. Are these appointments connected with the trip of the Belarusian leader to Moscow?

- Only non-professionals can fabricate such weird comparisons. Lukashenka appointed the government before the elections and clearly stated that this team will go with him after the elections. Then Lukashenka understood that no government and no ministers could fix the situation so quickly. There is no need to correct it: we are experiencing a classic crisis. We shouldn’t fight for the figures – this is the time of restructuring. The recession is going on – what's the point to change the government? Let's invite the last 20 Nobel Prize winners - will they do something? No, they won’t!

- It took less than an hour for the House of Representatives to adopt the law on state budget-2016. Nevertheless, the budget is formed at the rate of $50 per barrel of oil. However, the official Minsk has not yet reached an agreement with Moscow on oil duty and conditions of Russian oil supply to Belarus for the next four years. It turns out that the budget was prepared at random, wasn’t it?

- Let Russia build its budget on the basis of oil! But Belarus has got o many fools who think that Belarus, just like the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia, produces, sells, and makes money on oil. Our homegrown economists should be sent to universities where they will consider balances, flows of production, and compare the prices. It is not the budget; it’s nothing at all.

- How adequate is the current budget for the economy in crisis?

- The budget is formed according to the old patterns. We should have reduced all costs by 15%, whereas the budget increased by 7%. The figures will differ due to the inflation.

Today, the budget presents no particular interest. The main thing today is the industrial policy and promotion of business development and economic dynamics. The budget in its current form is unfeasible anyway. Budgets have never been fulfilled in Belarus; so there’s no use commenting on such budgets.

It will still be remade 2-3 months before the end of the year.

- Perhaps, it is not the budget itself which is interesting but the so-called package of budget laws. Changes in the tax laws were introduced. According to them, the price of gas and electricity increases by 20% and business and citizens are subject to new taxes. Does the new law correspond to the status of “socially oriented state”?

- There is no and there can be no socially oriented economy; the economy is always consumption-oriented and society-oriented.

Raising taxes is also the invention of mediocre students. Manufacturing industry has decreased by 7%. The main thing now is not to take the budget to pieces, do not fuss around it, but to clear space for a new industrial policy, the result of which will be new types of models and cars. This is the time of perestroika, as Gorbachev used to say. In times of crisis taxes are reduced, they should be minimized - this is the standard provision of economic science. But if the fools, who haven’t got bad marks in due time are doing otherwise – then you need to schedule a re-examination.

We need to reduce taxes and stimulate economic activity during the crisis by any means.

- But the fools rush in where angels fear to tread, which we can say about the Belarusian government judging from its actions.

- A former high-ranking officials leave for Slovakia to celebrate New Year there. Their pensions are more than those of professors. First, we should cut all the ministers’ salaries by 15%, as they did in Kremlin. Otherwise it seems that everyone but the officials have crisis.