Constitutional Court approves of car tax

The chairman of the Constitutional Court Piotr Miklashevich claims that the introduction of the car tax goes in line with the Consitution.

“The law was considered by the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court estimates this norm as constitutional”, - Miklashevich claimed on Thursday at a press-conference in Minsk, Interfax reports.

At the same time he explained that “among the constitutional duties of the citizens of Belarus there is a norm that they must partake in financing state expenses by paying taxes and fees”. Apart from that the chairman of the Constitutional Court said: “Every citizen wants to drive good roads. The situation emerged in Belarus, when there is not enough taxes in order to improve the quality of the roads, that is why such a decision was taken”.

Miklashevich emphasized that the tax for admission to participate in traffic for cars existed in many countries. ”This is not solely Belarusian practice”, - he pointed out. In the opinion of the chairman of the Constitutional Court, “the society takes the necessity of the tax with understanding”. “The amount is not significant, it should be paid for roads to improve”, - Miklashevich said.

We would remind that the fee’s tolling mechanism implies that organizations and citizens independently pay it by the moment of taking a regular state technical checkup, for which the tax’s payment document should be submitted along with other documents. Tax benefits in the case of the car fee are minimal and are only foreseen for special vehicles intended to be used by the disabled, special vehicles of the Ministry for Emergency, ambulances, public transport.

The tax rate is linked to the weight of the vehicle and depends on whether it belongs to a natural or legal person. The absolute majority of cars in our roads fall into the category of between 1 and 2 tons. Their owners will have to pay 5 basic units (currently – 650 thousand roubles).

The payment of the state fee is expected to bring 1.6 trillion roubles in 2014.

Photo: bymedia.net