Duty free shops under presidential administration control


Now home-produced goods in duty free shops will be sold without retail margins. In such a way the Belarusian authorities tend to support native producers. But in addition to taxpaying such shops will transfer 10 per cent of their revenue to the state budget monthly.

Currently there are only four duty free shops in Belarus. As Alexander Lukashenka reiterated his point of view that duty free shopping system played a very important part at the Belarusian shadow market, the liberalization in this direction should not be expected. Interestingly, some influential officials of the State Border Committee and the State Customs Committee were privy to turning import goods over to the shadow market. For this reason, it was ordered that duty free shopping system be pared down to the minimum.

In their turn, tour operators state that the lack of duty free shopping system undermine the image of the country. Foreigners are quite difficult to understand why these shops are closed. As a result, the state has not been gaining profits, Julia Stryzhak, a manager of Aktam travel agency, said.

Belsat

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