Private unitary enterprise campaign failed

1 March is a deadline for re-registration of individual entrepreneurs into private unitary enterprises.

According to president’s decree 302 of 28 July 2007, the individual entrepreneurs, who were going to employ people since 1 January, had to file documents for re-registration into a legal entity. A number of privileges are provided for them. Officials stressed several times that the term of re-registration wouldn’t be elongated, but the president’s decree 685 on prolongation of the term of re-registration on simplified conditions till 1 March was signed on 29 December 2007.

926 private unitary enterprises were registered in Belarus since 1 January to 4 February 2008. Andrei Tur, deputy minister of economy said it on the press conference on 13 February. On data of the deputy minister, about 1,500 individual entrepreneurs applied for registration of private unitary enterprises, and 3,300 enterprises were registered. But there are more than 200,000 individual entrepreneurs in the country!

According to the information of the Minsk city executive committee, 449 individual entrepreneurs were re-registered into private unitary enterprises in Minsk (data of 20 February). All in all 721 applications for re-registration were filed and 1075 business names were approved.

But individual entrepreneurs don’t want to register as private unitary enterprises and organise actions in protest. Four mass meeting of protest against decree 760 were held in Minsk for the three months. The decree allows individual entrepreneurs prohibits individual entrepreneurs to employ people and makes them change form of ownership.

As Viktar Harbachou, leader of the campaign “For Free Development of Business,” said in the interview to “Belorussikiya Novosti,” “entrepreneurs wait and see attitude now.” According to him, they are going to learn what will be after 1 March, when re-registration on simplified conditions will be over, and see how tax burden will increase.

V. Harbachou stressed that if requirements of entrepreneurs are not fulfilled, they will participate actively in the mass rally on Freedom Day, 25 March. Individual entrepreneurs demand to cancel the decree 760, adopt a law on small and medium business, stop persecution of activists of entrepreneurs’ movement and give them air on one of the Belarusian TV channels.