Special sites will be designated for small retail trade in Vitebsk

What needs to be done to stop offering substandard goods to customers in the regional center? How to combat unauthorized trade? What measures will help the northern capital transform from a negative example into a role model in this regard? Representatives of the interested services discussed these issues at a meeting of the Committee for State Control of the region.

The results of control measures indicate that the quality of trade services for the population of Vitebsk is still far from ideal.

— The main violations discovered during the inspections include the sale of goods with expired shelf life, non-compliance with the product range, and disregard for sanitary norms and rules, — said Nikolai Kletsko, Head of the Department for Control of Consumer Market and Services of the Committee for State Control of the region. — In addition, customers are not provided with necessary and reliable information about the goods.

According to him, the number of detected cases of violation of sanitary norms is increasing: if earlier they accounted for 50-60%, now it is more than 70%.

— The issue of the product range has also become more acute recently. Many imported goods are appearing at the expense of domestic ones, — noted Nikolai Nikolaevich. — According to the results of inspections conducted by us jointly with the trade inspectorate, such shortcomings have been identified in almost 90% of cases.

By the way, against the backdrop of positive dynamics in the growth of retail sales volume in Vitebsk over the past four years, there has been a steady decline in the share of sales of Belarusian-made goods — both food (from 85.1% in 2010 to 80.6% in 2013) and non-food (from 64.8% to 52.1%), emphasized Vadim Zaryankin, Chairman of the Committee for State Control of the region. The share of sales of domestic products in the retail network of the northern capital for 9 months of the current year amounted to 69.9%, while for the Vitebsk region as a whole, this indicator is 77.6%. Therefore, the relevant services have been instructed to take the necessary measures to change this ratio by increasing the share of Belarusian products in trade turnover.

Another pressing issue raised at the collegium was the fight against unauthorized trade. Almost every resident of the regional center knows the places where industrial goods and food products imported from outside our republic are offered to consumers, so to speak, directly from the ground. Such spontaneous trading rows can be seen, for example, near the Polotsk, Smolensk, and Chkalov markets, at the intersection of Frunze Avenue and Smolenskaya Street, and simply near large stores in the residential areas of the city. The conditions for storing and selling goods here are beyond criticism. However, Vitebsk should be a model for other settlements in the region.

To rectify the situation and bring small retail trade into a legal framework, the Vitebsk City Executive Committee has recently designated 9 locations where individuals will be allowed to sell various products: 5 in the Pervomaysky district and 2 each in the Zheleznodorozhny and Oktyabrsky districts. Now, the equipment of the designated sites needs to be completed. The collegium of the State Control Committee discussed the possibility of police officers patrolling the streets and explaining to citizens, especially in the initial stages, where trading is permitted and where it is prohibited.

The conditions for allocating trading places in Vitebsk for legal entities are planned to be approved in the near future. The tax service, law enforcement agencies, and the trade inspectorate are instructed to regularly conduct raid inspections to stop the unauthorized sale of goods.

The collegium also heard the opinion that stricter penalties would help combat so-called spontaneous markets. Currently, a violator can get away with a warning, and in the worst case, they face a fine of up to 3 base amounts. These measures often prove to be ineffective; many figures in the shadow economy find it more profitable to pay such a sum than to comply with the requirements of the legislation.

Given that the flow of foreign-made goods imported into the Vitebsk region is unlikely to weaken in the near future, the issues of suppressing unauthorized trade remain relevant. And only systematic and comprehensive work by all interested services can resolve them.

Liliya Ivchenko,A class=external href="http://vitvesti.by/">"Vitebskiye vesti"