На русском языке:
МАРТ предложил штрафовать магазины, в которых не берут беларусские товары
На беларускай мове:
МАРГ прапанаваў штрафаваць крамы, у якіх не бяруць беларускія тавары
It seems that the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade is concerned about the unpopularity of Belarusian goods, because it proposes to fine stores for a low percentage of their sale. When earlier having a shelf with domestic goods and a poster with a red-green slogan «Kuplaice Belaruskaye!» [‘Buy Belarusian goods’ -ed.] was enough for stores, now officials are discussing the need to fine retailers if these goods are staying on the shelf for too long.
It is not yet known how many domestic goods will need to be sold to satisfy MART, but it is already known that the sanction for non-fulfillment of the obligation will be up to 500 base rate (14,500 rubles). Failure to comply with the assortment lists is also proposed to be punished with a fine of 100 to 500 base rate (2,900 to 14,500 rubles).
It is assumed that these sanctions will not apply to micro-organizations, farms, as well as to legal entities whose share in the volume of retail trade turnover of food products is more than 85%. The list of food products and the values of the indicators of the minimum share will be established by the Council of Ministers.
So far, the draft decree «On measures to improve state regulation of the consumer market» has only been submitted for public discussion, but everything is ‘perfect’ in it.
In addition to the measures already listed, MART proposes to limit the profit of stores from food products to 5%, with the exception of consumer cooperation stores.
In the justification, officials provide that the draft decree was prepared in order to support domestic producers and create conditions for ensuring national food security.
At the same time, MART predicts that measures to force shops to sell Belarusian goods can cause an increase in expenditures of the public on food and social tensions, but still believes that it’s worth it:
«The introduction of obligations for the sale of food products of domestic production may lead to an increase in the costs of individuals due to the higher cost of certain food products of domestic production compared to imported ones (for example, fresh vegetables in early spring, confectionery, sugar) and, as a result, an increase in citizen dissatisfaction and social tensions».
Public discussion of the draft decree will be held from October 29 to November 8, 2021.
Recently we wrote that over the past 8 years, the share of consumption of Belarusian food products has decreased from 83.3% to 76.8%. Since 2013, Belarusians began to buy 12.2% less Belarusian goods, and prefer imported ones.
