/ / News
11.09.2013

Tourists safe from potential tax on Belarusian cross-border shoppers

MINSK, 11 September (BelTA) – The introduction of a special tax on Belarusians going abroad will be decided on within 1-1.5 months. The tax will not affect tourists, Vice Prime Minister of Belarus Piotr Prokopovich told the Respublika newspaper during a phone-in session held on 11 September, BelTA has learned.

The government is now considering the idea. We are taking a closer look at it. I think that within a month or so we will give answers to all the questions,” remarked Piotr Prokopovich.

In his words, various solutions to address the issue are under consideration. If the special tax is okayed, it will not affect citizens, who leave the country for tourism purposes. It will be applied to those, who frequently leave the country to buy merchandise abroad in order to resell it in Belarus.

The proposal to tax Belarusian cross-border shoppers was voiced by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko as he visited the Belarusian company OAO Motovelo on 6 September. Alexander Lukashenko said: “We are criticized that while we are a poor country, our people spend up to $3 billion in the European Union per year to bring back the products, which are made in Belarus, too. So I have given instructions, which include making them pay an outgoing tax regardless of the purpose of leaving the country. If we service them at the border, they will have to pay $100 per capita to leave the country”.