Council of Ministers “rewinded”: resolution 991 covers only state-run enterprises

The Prime Minister commented on the scandalous resolution 991 of the Council of Ministers banning wholesale trade.

The decision of the government on removing purchasing agents from selling goods by firms on the territory of the country covers only state-run enterprises and companies with the state’s stake, Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Sidorski said on Tuesday at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Minister.

“The document will cover only production and economic activities of state-owned companies and those with the state’s stake,” Interfax quotes Sidorski. The prime minister said the decision on removing purchasing agents wouldn’t affect other market segments.

Economists think the authorities realized the consequences of the resolution and chose to reduce the field of its application.

“It is absolutely clear that adoption of this resolution was idiocy. It was a half-baked irresponsible resolution that even didn’t define the order of purchasing agents, this document was examined in due way. Having met the reaction of business, having realized on Monday morning what they had done, the authorities started looking for a way to save their face. The reduced the area of application to state-run enterprises. A similar order of government purchases has already existed,” economist Syarhei Chaly told in an interview to the website www.charter97.org.

We remind that resolution 991 was adopted to “make the expenditure of funds effective, and to pursue a single financial policy at the territory of Belarus, taking in consideration the factors of the global financial and economic crisis”.

According to the document, legal entities can buy goods from own funds, borrowed funds and funds of country’s and local budgets from the suppliers who are manufacturers of goods, or from their official sales representatives.

Lists of official sales representatives will be approved by corresponding country’s organs of state administration and local executive bodies with an attached list of documents confirming the economic feasibility of buying goods from official sales representatives, with an agreement with deputy Prime Ministers of Belarus according to their spheres of work.

Independent experts and businessmen expressed apprehensions that the resolution 991 of the Council of Ministers “On Some Issues of Purchasing Goods on the territory of the Republic of Belarus” will remove purchasing agents from the process of selling home-made and imported goods by legal entities on the territory of Belarus.