Entrepreneurs: Situation in marketplaces strained up to the limit

Individual entrepreneurs warn the authorities against a social outburst.

This follows from the letter that they addressed to Belarus’ Prime Minister Mikhail Miasnikovich. The document asks for an unambiguous official clarification on the issue of the conditions on which individual entrepreneurs will keep working in marketplaces and trading centers from 1 December 2013 onwards. The letter was signed by the leader of the public association Perspektiva Anatol Shumchanka.

“According to the vice-Prime Minister Piotr Prakapovich, said at the meeting as of 15 November 2013, ministries and departments have been tasked with introducing changes in the resolutions of the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Provisions, Public Health Ministry and the State Standard of the Republic of Belarus as of 21 June 2013 number 9/26/50/32, providing individual entrepreneurs, paying the single tax, with the possibility to certify the compliance of light industry goods with technical regulations by the simplified procedure. It is the matter of rescheduling of the deadline for the simplified procedure from 1 July 2014 to 1 December 2013. The vice-Prime Minsiter also gave orders for changes and additions to be made to the decree of the president of Belarus as of 18 June 2005 number 2005 “On certain measures of regulating entrepreneurial activities” with preliminary deadlines set for the new document’s coming into force in December-February 2013-2014”, - they remind.

In the meanwhile, only 5 days left until 1 December 2013, and there is no complete clarity for entrepreneurs as to the working conditions. The letter’s authors say that in the case these instructions are followed, the majority of entrepreneur will stop their activities due to the impossibility to obtain the required documents for the goods they sell, which will become illegal in under 5 days. At the same time controlling bodies are preparing for large scale inspections of the said goods.

“Under the given conditions entrepreneurs will not be able to keep working under the threat of the upcoming actions of the controlling bodies, neither will they be able to proceed with the set fiscal relations with the state, which deprives them of income and the source for the obligatory tax payments.

We are informing you that the monitoring, carried out by us in the country’s marketplaces and trading centers, indicates a situation strained up to the limit, which will inevitably lead to a social outburst and confrontation, should the government proceed with such a policy of introducing changes and additions into the legislation, named above.

In the XXI century Belarusian entrepreneurs are not prepared for coming back to the policy of surplus-appropriation system on the part of inspection agencies, that was in place in the 90s”, - the letter says.

The letter’s authors consider it advisable to put all the effort into developing a compromised solution for small business and the authorities by the means of a constructive negotiations process.

In the meetings with authorities in the regions and the capital entrepreneurs warned the local authorities that they would not pay taxes until there was a clear answer to the question, by what rules to work come 1 December 2013.

“This is all a consequence of various comments made by official authorities, when ones state that nothing changes in the conditions for individual entrepreneurs, while the others on the contrary give instructions. Such incoherent actions by the authorities do damage to the country’s budget and cause the growth of discontent among the population, especially with News Year’s celebrations approaching. In the framework of integration processes with Russian and Kazakhstan the government signed the knowingly impossible agreement on technical regulations on the safety of light industry goods”, - the letter says.

With the purpose of solving the problems, stated above, and for payments made into the country’s budget in due time by small businesses, entrepreneur ask to promptly give an official commentary as to the government’s standing on the perspectives, terms and mechanisms of implementation of the technical regulations on the safety of light industry goods, including possible changes of the resolution as of 21 June 2013 number 9/26/50/32 and the decree number 285.

Individual entrepreneurs also suggest holding broad consultations with the participation of entrepreneurial organizations, including councils of entrepreneurs from the regions and the capital, on one part and the government on the other with the personal participation of Mikhail Miasnikovich.