Anti-Crisis Fund (ACF) of the Eurasian Economic Community, which is currently discussing with Belarus a new loan program, urges the Belarus authorities to raise tariffs for housing, communal services and transport as soon as possible.
The ACF recommendations were published after the last visit of the IMF mission to Minsk on May 18-22.
The tariffs for public utilities and transport services for the population, which are at a level significantly below their price cost, create an additional burden on the budget, which subsidizes the entire population, regardless of income, and reduce the competitiveness of the real sector, said the report ща the Eurasian Development Bank, which is the fund manager of the ACF.
According to the ACF experts, for the population in Belarus, the transition to compensated tariffs for paid services “has to go as quickly as possible.” It would free resources from the budget to help the poorest groups of the population, believe economists of the project group, BelaPAN reports.
Economist Leanid Zaika said that the requirement of the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund is standard. “Paying the real cost of gas, electricity, transport and housing is a very large burden on the state budget. Therefore, the Anti-Crisis Fund requires a speedy increase in tariffs, as, admittedly, the Belarusians pay for transportation and housing least in Europe. For the economy to be more effective, it is necessary to decrease the budget burden,” said the expert.
According to him, the next loan, which Belarus is trying to get from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund is completely pointless. “This loan will not change anything in Belarus. Everything will remain the same. The economy will not become more powerful. Currently, every Belarusian accounted for owes about $4 thousand of external debt. If we get a tranche from China, it will be $4.7 thousand. Who will repay this debt? Lukashenka and his prime minister? Obviously, not. The money will have to be repaid by the future generations. The country’s leadership is taking a loan to stay in power longer,” said Mr. Zaika.
The rate of price rise in housing services will remain the same in 2015, 2016 and 2017 at $5 a year, said Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Anatol Kalinin at a joint session of both Houses of Parliament on May 29, Radio Liberty reports.
Deputy Prime Minister added that at the end of 2015, the population will pay 40% of government spending in the housing sector, and starting ince January 2016, when it is planned to once again raise the cost of utility services, the population will start to pay 100% of the cost of garbage disposal and use of the elevator.
Maxim Yarashevich, belsat.eu/en/
