Mikalai Autukhovich: Market traders lack solidarity

Sole traders should have declared a boycott and stopped working.

“The measures taken by market traders to stop pressure from the authorities are not sufficient. They lack solidarity to defend their rights,” Mikalai Autukhovivh, a businessman from Vaukavysk and former political prisoner, thinks.

The traders who believed the authorities that their goods won't be confiscated return to markets, Radio Racyja reports.

“I am convinced that they should have declared a boycott and stopped working. The authorities just want to get money from them. Just after markets were closed, it was seen that the authorities wanted sellers to resume work and pay taxes, because they need money.

If traders had more solidarity and continued to defend their interests, they would probably achieve the return of old taxes to be able to work normally.”

In accordance with Lukashenka's decree No.222, sole traders who pay the single tax must have certificates for all goods, including those imported from the Customs Union, to prove the purchase of the goods. Sellers are afraid of audits and confiscations. The authorities consider a possibility of raising taxes for the right to sell goods without certificates.