Government Decided To Send "Alco-Trucks" To Villages

Lukashenka doesn’t want sober electorate.

The Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade proposes to "liberalize" the sale of alcohol in the country. For example, they intend to allow sole traders to sell alcohol in stationary stores in Belarus, regardless of the area of shopping facilities, and legal entities – in food trucks, Vialeta Brazouskaya, the head of the trade and services department of MART informed tut.by.

The norms are spelled out in the draft law "On State Regulation Of Trade And Public Catering", included in the "package on liberalization". The package of documents is now under Lukashenka’s administration’s consideration.

– It is planned to allow legal entities to sell alcohol in food trucks with the condition of coordinating the traffic routes and the assortment list with local authorities. And sole traders will be allowed to sell alcohol in stationary stores, regardless of the area of retail facilities. This will be the case of settlements with a population of up to two thousand people," – the department head explained.

Now it is allowed in Belarus to sell alcohol products in the food trucks servicing residents of rural settlements provided that they comply with the assortment list and its owners have a stationary store as well. AS of today, sole traders can sell alcohol only on tap in cafes and restaurants.

Now, the legislation has restrictions on the area of retail facilities: alcohol is only allowed in shops and pavilions with an area of 50 square meters or more. The document will remove the restriction on the area for the countryside.

– Alcohol takes a certain weight in the structure of sales, – it affects the profitability of the organization. To attract traders to travel to remote villages, which are as far as 20, 30, 50 kilometers, we offered to allow them to sell a full range of goods, including alcohol. However, it is important that they sell other goods, not only alcohol – for this, the route of the movement and the assortment will be coordinated with the local authorities, – Vialeta Brazouskaya says.

Earlier, the site Charter97.org reported that Luashenka had instructed oligarch Tapuzidzis to organize a network of shops in the country.