Siarhei Balykin: Fiscal authorities turned into a financial “gestapo”

Siarhei Balykin, a lawyer and economist analyses new methods tax authorities use for work.

- Fiscal authorities in Belarus have turned from the economy controlling means to some kind of special services, or a financial “Gestapo”, - stated Siarhei Balykin in the interview with the EuroBelarus Information Service. – They do not disdain to use any methods in order to wring as much taxes as possible. The arsenal of law enforcement officials, such as operational search without actually starting criminal proceedings ( which is prohibited both by the Constitution and by the Criminal or Administrative Code) is employed.

The Decree No.488 “On certain measures for the prevention of illegal minimization of tax liabilities”, which entered in force on January 1, 2013, has actually created problems for the honest entrepreneurs. Siarhei Balykin noted that although the document entered in force on January 1, 2013, “its norms are being used for the legal relations that appeared long before this term, namely post factum, which contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus”.

According to the expert, the Decree basically allows the supervisory bodies to cancel the deals extrajudicially; that is why we can talk about the call to account without court decision and basing on suspicions only.

Besides, Belarusan fiscal authorities perform the functions of not only chastisers, investigators and operative agents, but also the functions of criminal law experts, drawing their conclusions on the basis of far-fetched arguments and the testimonial evidence which is actually useful for them.

According to the paragraph one of the Decree of the President No.1 and the guidelines of the Decree No.114, testimonial evidence can only be recognized as truthful in court. Thus, the controlling bodies base their actions on unreliable and inadmissible evidence.

Siarhei Balykin highlights that Belarusan fiscal authorities are used not only “as a means to fight business and wringing money from businessmen to the state budget”.

- Recently they have turned into a mechanism of repressions against civil activists. And, unfortunately, Belarusan civil society and human rights fighters are obviously unprepared for such a scenario. Human rights fighters do not understand the economic nature of these relations and prefer to confine to the international obligations Belarus has; which results in numerous grave mistakes they are making. The classic example of persecution under the pretext of the nonpayment of tax is Ales Bialiatski’s case. We can have different attitudes towards civil stand and the effectiveness of his organization; but there’s no denying that a lot of tragic mistakes were made, which resulted in his confinement. I observed the process as a lawyer and economist, and I noticed that Belarusan human rights fighters and lawyers were helpless when it was the matter of taxes. And it is fiscal regulations that the government takes advantage of. The authorities state that nonpayment of taxes is a crime basically in every country and has nothing to do with politics; that is why they have the right to count on cooperation. As the practice shows, the authorities manage to gain necessary information and call people to account.