Road Charge: Is Analogue Of Decree On "Parasites" Being Made?

The authorities have planned another trick.

The government of Belarus has finalized the draft decree on levying state duty for allowing a vehicle to participate in traffic.

The drivers, who massively boycott the road tax, expect from the authorities that this fee will be untied from the technical inspection.

But will it really happen? Viktar Marchyk, a Slonim activist and candidate from the European Belarus civil campaign, answers the questions of Charter97.org.

- Prime Minister Siarhei Rumas has stated that "the road charge is the main source to replenish the road fund today. Drivers expect that the authorities will finally untie it from the technical inspection. Do you believe that it will happen without any reservations?

- I think that the authorities could do with this kind of income. They will definitely come up with some tricky move. They will not touch people in their pockets straight away, but in the end the same thing will come out, and maybe it will be even more expensive.

People boycott payment of this charge, because they see that our roads have fallen into disrepair. And even those who used to pay it all the time are unlikely to do it now - the roads have not been repaired for five or seven years. What's the point of paying the fee if the money goes to officials' offshores rather than to the roads?

People will continue to treat this charge with great caution - just like all the laws that come from this government. People want to undergo the technical check-up - there are no problems with this. Because everyone understands that the condition of the car is to be checked, because not only your life, but also the lives of other people can depend on it. But since the road charge was tied to the inspection, people stopped doing it.

- The payment of the road charge will be controlled by cameras - by the car's number. What can this method lead to in practice?

- I wonder how they will record it. They do not want to include this fee in the price of petrol, as it is in all the countries. If you drive - you pay, if you don't drive, then you don't pay. Generally speaking, I can drive for two meters and get on the camera, and I can drive for 100 kilometers and again, get on it.

It happens that a person goes to work from one village to another and that's all - he doesn't drive anywhere else. And he will always get on the camera and pay fines. This is outrageous!

- Rumas said that the new decree has a number of measures to tighten liability for not paying the fee. Won't it cause the drivers' backlash, since people are already outraged by the huge number of extortions and fines amid falling living standards?

- The authorities usually do so - first they introduce a law and then they toughen it with fines. Nowadays, they like to fine for every little thing in Belarus. Fines and extortions are rising, while wages are falling. A car is no longer a luxury, but just a means of transportation. Now every Belarusian family has it. If the authorities toughen responsibility for not paying the fee, it will cause a resonance in society.

Most Belarusians do not have new cars, because the standard of living simply does not allow to buy new ones. And it has fallen even more recently. And a lot of people are not able not only to buy a new car from the salon, but even a used one in good condition. Some people try to repair them, do something. But time takes its toll - cars get old and constantly break down. Accordingly, it is difficult to pass the technical check-up of such a car, especially with these payments...

The authorities won't make any concessions and won't miss an opportunity to make a packet. Most likely, they will slightly change it, but the essence will remain the same. This was already the case with the decree on "parasites": Decree No. 3 was canceled and Decree No. 1 was created. That is, it is the same kind of extortion, just the authorities came from the other side.

- Discussing the budget of Belarus for 2020, Rumas said that the petrol prices would be constantly rising. How can the drivers react to this, given the fact that "surprises" with the road charge are already being prepared for them?

- It is quite difficult to predict how the people will react to this. The reaction, of course, will be negative. Fuel price hikes will affect everyone. Now the car is just necessary, many people go to work by car and so on. It is difficult to say whether there will be a repetition of the Stop-Petrol campaign or not. But against the constantly rising prices and falling wages - it's quite possible.

They are constantly "tightening the screws," but the thread will get cut in the end anyway. There are "presidential elections" ahead. Most likely, people will take to the square even before them.

-Same Rumas spoke about another cunning proposition: drivers will be "encouraged" to pay the road charge in advance - for a year. How ruinous is it for the budget of an average Belarusian family, given that the authorities want to get twice as much money into the road budget this year?

- Everything depends on the amount, the Belarusians will have to count up everything. People are not fools. If the reduced amount when paying for a year at once is less than the present one, then, perhaps, someone will go for it. But if the payment is divided into months, and the amount remains the same, then paying the fee makes no sense.

It seems to me that even with a discount, at most 30% of drivers will pay the fee, the rest will not. Someone will not pay for the sake of principle, and someone's family budget will simply not be enough for that.

The Belarusians simply do not have money to pay the road charge. People will have a choice: either to pay for the inspection, or to take risks, but somehow manage to feed the family and children. And the people, of course, will choose the second option.

The main reason why people ignore paying the road charge is poverty. People cannot afford to waste money on this. If a person has a salary of $100-150, he or she gives half of the income only on the communal bills. And yet they have to live somehow, and get dressed. You won't walk around with a fig leaf on.

Therefore, the Belarusians will continue to ignore the road tax, because it is absurd.

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