Markert vendors have to pay for time of rent they didn't used

Market vendors who sold own-produced goods at Minsk's Dinamo Stadium have to pay 25 million rubles each.

Charter97.org has learnt it from Viachaslau Pilipuk, the deputy head of Perspective organisation.

“Market vendors have worked at Dinamo market from 5:30 till 8:30 since 2010. It was an arrangement with the stadium management. They recently began to receive statements of claims saying they must pay the market 25 million rubles each. It happened because the State Control Committee carried out an audit at the market and said market vendors must work 8 hours a day. The rental fee was calculated on an hourly basis. People paid for three hours, but now it occurred they need to pay for 8 hours. Market vendors have to pay the debt for three years,” a leader of the Belarusian small business movement said.

He adds that the first court hearing is scheduled for September 12.

“The most awful thing is that the first lawsuit is against the woman with stage IV cancer. She sold her sewing room last year. She receives treatment and doesn't run business any more. The authorities make a 'present' for her. It's worth noting that market vendors produced and sold clothes at the market. They sold Belarusian goods,” Viachaslau Pilipuk underlined.