Tax On Mushrooms And Berries Introduced In Belarus

Does it mean that now you can go to the forest only for money?

The former General Director of JSC "Dzhem-Bank" Aliaksandr Tataryntsau paid attention to the new additional levy to be collected from Belarusians.

"Another blow to social parasites.

Have you really thought that you don't owe anything if you've paid the tax on poverty? Do you think you can gather mushrooms and berries, keep bees in a village? No way! Now you have to pay a tax on such liberties as well.

Probably, the legal scheme of mushroom (berries, nuts, and even moss) gathering will now be as follows: buy a voucher and go. And there you show it to the inspector if anything. If there is no ticket, you're a poacher, a defaulter and you shall be punished with all the severity. And don't even try to pay off with mushrooms – it's a criminal offend! Well, perhaps you could eat the berries quickly, only make sure there are no witnesses.

And this is not a joke, here's the link to the official document. Hurry up to buy the vouchers – the summer is coming!" – Aliaksandr Tataryntsau writes on his Facebook page.

The title of the document is as follows:

"On establishing the tariffs for secondary use of forest and harvesting of minor forest resources, for the use of forest areas for the cultural-recreational, tourist purposes and for other recreational and (or) mass sporting, health and fitness, scientific research and educational purposes."

The resolution came into force on 31 December 2016.

By "secondary use of forest" they mean mowing, grazing, placement of hives and apiaries, harvesting of tree sap, harvesting and gathering of wild fruits, berries, nuts, mushrooms and other edible forest resources, harvesting of raw materials for medicinal and technical use, gathering of moss, forest litter, fallen leaves.