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Lukashenka Called Sole Traders Bandits

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Lukashenka Called Sole Traders Bandits
photo: tut.by

The dictator demands to take the whole business under control.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka demands to take measures “to enable equal operation terms for all commercial structures”, ignoring the discontent of sole traders. He stated this on February 9, as he heard out a report of Minister of Trade of Belarus Uladzimir Kaltovitch.

“Make the terms equal for state-owned retailers and private ones as well as foreign and domestic ones. Don't mind the strikes staged by some self-employed market vendors or someone else. Last year we reached a clear-cut agreement. We are not boys for one to fool us, I am not the one to be fooled. There has been an agreement and we must act according to it,” – BelTA quotes Lukashenko.

The governor blamed sole traders again for “ruining our light industry.” “We must understand that those who import all sorts of rags here (and even good quality products, if they come from Turkey, China, Russia and so on), it is necessary to understand that all that we have imported from there, has just ruined our economy, our light industry. It will not grow like that. Moreover, without documents and certificates. Look, we are legalizing bandits and criminals like that! We give a go-ahead to some people and yet we put in prison other people for doing the same things,“ – he claimed.

“And then, they have to understand that the certification of goods is only the first step. We are going to take all the steps this year. You have goods, a consignment note, all the accompanying documents, certification – go and trade. If you don’t have it, then you won’t trade,” – Lukashenka said.

He stressed that “in the future the business will be under control”: “Then the light industry and the retail industry in Belarus will have equal terms for everyone — for self-employed businessmen, other private enterprises, and state-run enterprises. They always demand equal treatment. Here is some equal treatment for them.”

According to the Decree №222 on regulating business activities, since January 1, 2016 sole traders are to sell products of the light industry imported from the Customs Union countries with covering documents only. However Russian suppliers, from whom Belarusian sole traders mostly buy goods, refuse to issue the documents confirming origin of the goods, or issue false certificates. It becomes the grounds for fines, seizure of property from Belarusian sole traders. Since their numerous requests to the authorities to annul the Decree №222 had not been heard, with the beginning of January, the vast majority of sole traders, who had been selling products of light industry, suspended their work being unable to meet the requirements of the decree.

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