Tax officials meet with Zhdanovichy protestors :: Charter'97 :: News

Senior officials of the tax ministry on Tuesday received around 40 market vendors operating at Minsk`s Zhdanovichy retail market.

The meeting came three days after more than 100 vendors staged a spontaneous protest at Zhdanovichy`s Svet Mody-3 shopping center after tax officers decided to seize fur coats from a vendor.

The tax officers threatened that they would seize all goods on offer at the retail stall, estimated at $100,000, after the vendor, an employee of a sole entrepreneur, failed to produce a paper certifying the entrepreneur`s permission that the employee may deal in the goods.

Deputy Tax Ministers Alyaksandr Darashenka and Vasil Kamenka received the group of vendors, which refused to open their stalls at the shopping center following the incident, on Tuesday.

The ministry`s press office told BelaPAN that the sides had found agreement, with the vendors acknowledging finally that the tax inspectors` claim had been legitimate. It said that the ministry, in its turn, had promised to "organize an explanatory work" over problem issues facing market vendors.

Anatol Shumchanka, leader of the Perspektyva business association who was barred from the meeting because of his alleged engagement in politics, shared the opinion that the sides had found agreement.

According to him, the vendors at the Svet Mody-3 shopping center would get back to work on August 22.

Mr. Shumchanka said that they were expecting the tax authorities to explain the problem issues.

"This incident has showed that governmental agencies should always seek to find a common language with people, listen to them and promptly sort things out in order to prevent such disputes," he added.