News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 21 December (BelTA) – The revised Ordinance No. 3 on the prevention of social dependency will come into full force and effect on 1 January 2019, Belarus Vice Premier Vasily Zharko told the media following the meeting chaired by the Belarusian president, BelTA has learned.

“The most important thing is to stimulate employment, to create the conditions for the 100% employment of citizens who should work,” the vice premier noted.

According to Vasily Zharko, the government will work out the relevant criteria and compile a list of services that the citizens, who fall under the purview of the revised ordinance, will be obligated to reimburse in full.

The vice premier said that in the light of the new approaches, the ordinance will be re-edited. The title of the document will be changed. “The economic and administrative-managerial mechanisms will be used to implement this document,” he said.

Vasily Zharko recalled that Belarus is creating the additional conditions to promote business, stimulate self-employment. A number of documents have already been adopted. In addition, local authorities will be made responsible for the creation of new jobs. The relevant instructions have already been communicated to them.

Thus, the state is creating the conditions for the engagement of citizens in employment. The economic instruments will be used in respect of those “who can and should work but are not willing”. “These include the reimbursement of 100% of the costs of the services. The government will draw up the list of such services in the first quarter of next year. The government will determine the criteria for categorizing payers, the vice premier noted.

“Full recovery of the costs of the services will be introduced on 1 January 2019. An information database, which is currently being developed, will be controlled by the Labor and Social Security Ministry,” Vasily Zharko said.

In his words, the new version of the ordinance will provide for a custom-tailored approach. The main executors of the document will be the local authorities and the commissions to be set up in the district and city administrations. These commissions will be chaired by heads of the district councils of deputies. The commissions will comprise both representatives of the executive authorities and public organizations.

Before making a decision on the full payment for services by a citizen, the commission will study all the circumstances, suggest employment or, maybe, decide to exclude a person from the list over some valid reasons.

The commissions will revise the list of taxpayers on a regular basis. Once the fact of employment is confirmed, the person will be excluded from the list.

Vasily Zharko did not specify the services that will need to be reimbursed in full, noting that this issue is under discussion. “Many services are currently subsidized from the budget. We will decide on the services that will be subject to full recovery of costs,” he said.

The draft ordinance also provides for the grounds for fee exemption.

According to Vasily Zharko, if there are no jobs in a certain area, the authorities will be tasked with creating jobs or providing retraining courses for the unemployed.