Cultural Associations Blame Regime Over Tax Attacks :: Charter'97 :: News

Endowing the cultural associations with the national status will free them from taxation burden. Such a viewpoint was shared at the September 2 press-conference in Minsk by Ivan Vashkevich – chairman of the Belarusian Confederation of cultural unions, uniting 8,652 individuals. By the year 1992, he said, none of the cultural unions was exposed to taxation. “This had never been the case even during the Second World War period”. “However, since 1992 our spiritual ministry to the nation was equalized to the material manufacture and therefore the cultural unions had been led to a disastrous condition,” – stressed Vashkevich.

“The people of art undergo the assaults of the tax inspection although they hadn’t sold anything,” – complained Vashkevich. He rebuked the Ministry of culture over refusing to support them and instead, “simply consuming the products of cultural associations”.

The leader of the Belarusian Union of painters Vladimir Basalyga, in his turn, reported that the rent of one square meter of space for one’s workshop has already reached 5 euros. “However, no painter can afford paying 1mln rubles a month for the rent of his workshop,” – said he.

According to the head of the Union, in the year 2003 the Belarusian Union of painters managed to demand the reduction of apartment rent for workshops by ten times. Nonetheless, he added, in the following year this privilege is going to be called off by the authorities.