Happy New Year! Happy new prices and taxes!

New taxes are introduced in Belarus today as well as prices grow on a number of goods.

Utilities

Utility providers complained that the devaluation of the Belarusian rouble decreased the planned share of utility costs, covered by consumers. With the purpose of eliminating this injustice in early December the authorities decided to make amendments to the decree “On measures for raising efficiency of housing and communal services”.

The novelty is driven by the desire not to allow for the “decrease in the recoupment of housing and communal services”. For this purpose the prices for housing and communal services will be adjusted.

From now onwards utility tariffs will get increased every year on 1 January. The increase amounted to $5 USD “according to the annual average exchange rate”.

Alcohol and cigarettes

Excise duty rates for strong alcohol drinks will grow by 14.5% on 1 January and by 11.1% on 1 July, for cheap wine – by 36.1% on 1 January and by 28.7% on 1 July, for beer – by 13-15% on 1 January and by 6-7% more on 1 July. This all will cause the growth of retail prices for beer.

Maximum retail prices for most kinds of cigarettes have also increased in Belarus as of 1 January 2014. Prices for some of them more than doubled.

New prices for tobacco products are published in the web-site of the Ministry for Taxes and Fees.

The price growth affected practically of kinds of cigarettes – produced in Belarus and imported alike. Cigarettes Credo will grow in price the most (more than double up to 5800 roubles a pack), the least - Winston XSence Club Blue and Winston XSence Club Silver (by 3.6% up to 14500).

More expensive will be the cigarettes of the brands Alliance, Camel, Monte Сarlo, Glamour, Pall Mall, Winston, Lucky Strike, LD, Kent, Vogue, West, Dunhill, Davidoff, Richmond, Sobranie

Public transport

The plan of Belarus’ socio-economic development for 2014 foresees the price increase for railway transport by 2-2.5 times. The tariff increase will take place in 3 stages. City public transport will grow as well. In Minsk the price of one ride is scheduled to grow up to 5000 roubles, in the regions – up to 4200.

Car tax

An analog of a transport tax appeared in Belarus today – a state duty for issuing permission for a car to participate in traffic. It will have to be paid when taking a state vehicle checkup by legal and natural persons alike.

The novelty caused a protest on the part of Belarusians. In several days as many as 80 thousand signatures were collected under an appeal to the authorities demanding to cancel the car tax. Two protest actions Stop-Tax were arranged by car owner in Belarus.

The charter97.org web-site learned that the object of taxation is the issue of permission for a car to participate in traffic. The information came from a source in Beltekhosmotr vehicle checkup institution.

The employees of the institution received a temporary instruction for internal use only on how to check the date of the duty payment. The instruction establishes the procedure of checking and registering the documents, proving the payment of the state duty or exempting from the payment.

Starting from 1 January 2014 permission for a car to participate in traffic is to be issued by an employee of the republican unitary service enterprise Beltekhosmotr of the Ministry of Transport and Communications at the place of taking a state vehicle checkup.

Landlord tax

The tax on lending accommodation is scheduled to be increased by 12.7% in 2014 in Belarus. Specific tax rates on lending premises will be based on the indexed basic level depending on the category of the settlement to which they belong.

The rates for Minsk are set depending on the economic-layout zones. For example, starting from 2013 a landlord monthly pays 95 thousand roubles, if the accommodation belongs to the third, fourth or fight zones, 110 thousand roubles, if the accommodation belongs to the second zone and 135 thousand roubles if the accommodation belongs to the first zone.

More paid roads

The electronic toll system BelToll, used for collecting fees for the use of Belarusian roads, is expanding. Up until recently paid was the part of the road Minsk-Mahilou from the capital until the 74-th kilometer. The first of January is the first day when a payment is collected for the use of the whole length of the M4 road.

In order for the payment collection to be appropriate the road was repaired, put in order according to the requirements of the first road category: at least three lanes – two each way, the traffic coming from the opposite directions separated by a fence.