Confiscations of goods of Minsk sole traders continued

The authorities have incited inspection authorities against naïve sole traders, who believed that the new decree had changed everything.

The leader of the coordinating committee of sole traders of Minsk Alyaksadnr Makaeu told charter97.org that two weeks ago two seizures at Rakauski kirmash in MInsk took place.

“Confiscations at markets continue. It mostly happens during inspections of tax police. If people have no documents about purchase or quality certificates, goods are seized from owners. Thus, at Rakauski kirmash there have been inspections recently, and two confiscations took place. Electronic cigarettes to the amount of Br75 million were seized from one of businessmen, and goods to the amount of 50 million were seized from another stall.

People are working, however they are not prepared for inspections. They dream of indulgent conditions, and they think that if they had been given permissions for work and for importing goods, they can relax. But as before they have no accompanying documents for the shelf stock. That is why such serious confiscations have taken place,” the businessman said.

Since March 1 the notorious Decree №222 has come into force, and it has become forbidden to sell goods without accompanying documents. In cases of violations sole traders are to be fined for a sum of Br9 mln, and goods are to be seized.

After a while Lukashenka passed e new amended decree, according to which the term for selling the shelf stock was extended. However according to the leader of the sole traders’ movement, small businessmen have been tricked again.

For the first few month of this year large-scale inspections and seizures of goods have been taking place.