The infamous tax on unemployed in Belarus is officially cancelled. On 25 January 2017 Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, signed decree #1 that removes the requirement for able-bodied citizens who don’t hold an official employment to pay a contribution of 490 Belarusian rubles (US $248) per year.

Tax on unemployed cancelled, but citizens without jobs still have to pay

Instead of one universal payment, people who don’t study or work will have to pay in full for services that government subsidises. Such services may include education, medical, transport, electricity, water, etc. Previously the tax on unemployed was supposed to collect enough money to fund these industries that non-working citizens take advantage of.

The new legislation takes another angle. Able-bodied Belarusian women and men without an official source of income are going to be “stimulated” to find a gainful employment.

This is why from 1 January 2019 they will be required to pay the full price for government-subsidized services, which they used to be able to access free of charge. The full list of such services had yet been determined and this task is left for newly formed committees that should include parliamentarians of various levels, specialists from the government and community representatives. This list should be complied by 1 April 2018.

The committees can also give a temporary free pass to citizens experiencing hardship or a difficult family situation.

The march of “non-freeloaders” in March 2017. Photo: maxim-nm.livejournal.com.

Uninvolved in the economy

Instead of concentrating on the unemployed, the new decree talks about “uninvolved in the economy“. The process of defining a person as such is also unclear and needs to be formalized. As well as how the whole thing will work and how the “uninvolved in the economy” will be charged for services from the list.

Supposedly, there will be a country-wide database of people who are not listing an official source of income and at the same time have not registered as job-seekers with the government. This first-level list will be put to scrutiny on the local level to ensure that it doesn’t include people who have a reasonable excuse to be unemployed.

The new law mentions the need for “prophylactic measures” against antisocial lifestyles and thorough checks on locals who don’t seem to have a legitimate source of income.

The former law on taxing the unemployed had been widely unpopular, causing mass protests of people labelled “freeloaders”. In March 2017 the government stopped collecting the tax and ordered policy-makers to develop a new version of a legislation targeting “social freeloading”.

• In December 2017 the average wage in Belarus was 995 Belarusian rubles, which was about USD 491 at the time.
• The last denomination in the country in 2016 was 10,000 to 1, so now 1 USD is about 2 Belarus rubles.

Monthly wages in Belarus in 1991-2017. The huge discrepancy in numbers is explained by galloping inflation, followed by denominations. To understand how much it was in USD, you need to use a historical currency converter. Data: Belstat.gov.by

Focus on contributing to the society

Irina Kostevich, the Minister of Labour and Social protection of Belarus, pointed out that the law is targeting a certain category of citizens who don’t work and have no desire to find a job, including the ones employed in the so called “shadow economy”, i.e. getting cash payments without paying taxes, Tut.by reported. This is why the government is determined to create “conditions under which the citizen will be interested in finding a job”.

Kostevich said the law is needed to protect “the rights of our citizens who scrupulously and honestly want to work, and will help to provide justice as the base principle of social politics.”

However, some experts say that provision of medical services for free only to people who have a job contradicts the country’s Constitution.

Andrei Lobovich,  Deputy Minister of Labour and Social protection of Belarus, said that all measures will be “oriented towards a concrete person”. According to Lobovich, the new legislation will also provide assistance to people who struggle to get a job, including finding a temporary paid employment within government or communal structures, and possibly teaching people how to start a small business.

“The decree is directed towards maximum support of citizens in finding a job, providing a legal employment, and based on the principle of social justice and participation of all citizens in the life of the society,” Lobovich stated, according to KP.by.

It must be noted that “social freeloaders” in Belarus are not targeted for collecting unemployment benefits while simply not wanting to work. To collect social payments for unemployment a person needs to register with the government job-seeking service, and such citizens were exempt from the tax on unemployed.

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