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Outcry over Decree on Parasitism Runs High

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Outcry over Decree on Parasitism Runs High

Some unemployed can barely make ends meet, to say nothing of tax on "parasitism".

Belarusian "spongers" will not be fined for non-payment of the tax, and the decree "on spongers" will be adjusted until the end of the year. Aliaksandr Lukashenka has not allowed abolishing it, in spite of the government's proposal.

The meeting that considered Decree "On Prevention of Social Dependency" took place two days ago, but outcry is running high. Yesterday residents of Mahilyey handed signatures against the tax on parasitism to "deputies" of the "Parliament". "The decree is senseless, the country currently misses jobs, people believe. - There has been found 400 thousand of the unemployed, but the number of vacancies does not exceed 20 thousand. The state is able to provide only 5% of the unemployed with low-skilled work." Opposition representatives of the United Civil Party and For Freedom movement and the Belarusian Christian Democracy perform as initiators of signatures collection. They intend to move on,Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

Local community when analyzing an official data on decree implementation considered that the document would be abolished. The Lukashenka's opinion is supported by the government. "There were proposals just about to abandon the decree: a lot of criticism, it is difficult to administer, and many other issues," he explained.

The essence of the document is that all citizens of Belarus who officially do not work and do not pay taxes to the budget are subject to pay the tax of $200 until November 15. De jure, it is directed against the unemployed. De facto, it was developed to counter the grey market. And this difference caused difficulty in the mechanism of revealing "spongers". Later, after some doing, they sent out 70 thousand letters to unemployed Belarusians. According to recent comments provided by the Ministry for Taxes and Duties, almost a quarter of receivers of "letters of happiness" managed to prove they were not spongers and do not work for good reasons (disabled people, students living abroad, people who take care of disabled people).

It turns out that majority of "spongers" are those who are not able to find a job and they have no money to buy food, to say nothing of the tax. It is known that non-payers will not be fined yet. "In connection with planned amendments to the Decree, individuals whose payment matured on November 15, temporarily will not be administratively liable unless the deadline for payment is specified," Maryna Sobal, Head of Department of the Ministry for Taxes and Duties (MTD in Belarus, informed.

Deputy Prime Minister stated that the document would be amended until the end of the year. The decree will be considered at the local level and it will be decided whether a citizen is subject to the tax. An interesting and highly subjective criteria, according to experts, appear - whether a person is "in hard circumstances."

The outcry is running really high. The decree violates the Constitution which secures the right to labour, not obligation. It goes contrary to common sense and the world practice when the unemployed receive benefits from the state. It also ignores the current situation on the labour market - enterprises work short week, mass cuts occur. Some Belarusians agree on imprisonment, because they have no money to pay the tax.

According to observers, the main reason for non-abolition of the tax is "Lukashenka's inability to recognize mistakes. This document was created by his initiative. The idea faced several transformations - first, it was offered to deprive the unemployed of free medical care, education and to make them fully pay for rent bills. However, it turned to be impossible. Later it was decided to punish "spongers" with the tax.

But many experts believe that the document will die out as soon as it is implemented at the local level — that is, it simply will not be practiced. And the dictator will not have to concede his mistake.

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