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Sole Traders: After January 1 We Are Going To Enter Monastery

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Sole Traders: After January 1 We Are Going To Enter Monastery
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A sole trader from Homel Sviatlana Kalachova predicts what is to happen after January 1, 2016, when the new rules on certificates are to come into force.

Delivering a speech at the Entrepreneurship Forum, Lukashenka’s aide for economic issues Kiryl Rudy said that a Belarusian businessman is “most likely a man, who sells imported goods, who is most likely not registered anywhere, and most likely do not pay any taxes anywhere, and even if he pays them, he does not pays much.” He also noted that over the nine months since the beginning of the year sole traders have paid just Br3 trillion to the budget, which is no more than 2% of the entire tax revenues.

We remind that since January 1, 2016 sole traders are not allowed to sell goods without a certificate of quality. Besides, a ban on sales of shelf stock is to come into force. A sole trader from Homel Sviatlana Kalachova told Radio Racyja what the Belarusian entrepreneurs are expecting from this “New Year”:

I have been working as a sole trader for 18 years. I was standing outdoors in the heat, in in freezing temperatures, then I moved to shopping centres, where I had 3 sales outlets. After March 2015 only two are left. And for today from each sales outlet I pay more than Br5 million a month in taxes. When my business partners from Moscow learn about that, they go numb for several minutes. And I have to pay Br 10 million from the two selling spots. And in addition, there is rent, Br15 million from each sales outlet. And then, I have to pay Br3 million to the social defence fund. So let Mr. Rudy count up, how sole traders are working. And we have nowhere to go, as I have devoted almost 2 years to business activities, and what should I do now – to find myself on the street? Why will employ 50-year-old sole traders now? One of my friends, a female sole trader, says in complete earnest, that she is going to enter a convent after January 1. She says: “At least, I will be fed there.”

– Officials recommend sole traders to retool…

– What job retraining is meant, when university-educated people are sole traders in the market places typically? Now there are dismissals at enterprises, everyone reduces staff, so who would need sole traders? And since January 1 an even more ‘marvelous’ time is to come. In the regions people are paid 100 Euro, and those who get 200 Euro are rich people. In the West the unemployment relief is greater by several fold! And we are working 24 hours a day. We came to the market places when we were 25, when factories and plants were closed. We came there because of the desperate situation. Is the state unaware of that? Doesn’t the government know that all of us are going to land on the street level? People in Moscow do not want to give us documents, or even to deal with us. Checkups started there, and they don’t need our problems. I received a phone call from Moscow and I was said: “I am sorry, Sviatlana, but please do not come to us anymore.” I can sell Belarusian goods with documents, but a different question arises: “Who will buy that from me? And will I be able to cover Br15 millions of rent and taxes selling Belarusian goods?

– How are you going to work after January 1, 2016?

– Frankly speaking, I do not know. That is why I have written a document declaring a possible cancellation of lease in the shopping centre’s premises. The city authorities stated that almost 20% of the budget of Homel is revenues from businessmen. So after that let our officials bustle about in the way they want. Or maybe we do not understand anything by our feeble minds? We all must be stupid, though many have graduated from two universities. And officials are celestial beings. They have a stable income, and they live in a different world. They start talking about certificates, illicit trafficking. I have been working for 18 years, and it hadn’t been illicit trafficking then, had it? Do they need enemies of the state? I do not exclude that large retail networks are bringing suitcases of bribes, with only one aim, for officials to trample their competitors.

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