About a hundred residents of the Vitebsk region have been exempted from paying the fee under Decree No. 3

"Administrations at the place of registration are considering citizens' applications for exemption from paying the fee for financing state expenditures due to difficult life circumstances. But I can provide the total figure as of February 6 - 93 people in the entire region have received a positive response, meaning they have been exempted from payment. The majority of applications come from Vitebsk, where the largest number of payers of this fee in the region is registered," noted Tatyana Lipskaya.

The Vitebsk City Council of Deputies has delegated the right to exempt citizens from paying the fee to the executive committee. This work is carried out by the city commission for considering applications from legal entities and individuals, and individual entrepreneurs for tax benefits and state support. It includes representatives of the tax service, the deputy corps, legal and financial departments, and the department for labor, employment, and social protection, headed by Zinaida Koroleva, Deputy Chairperson of the city executive committee. About 300 applications have been received during this period, of which almost a hundred have already been reviewed, and new ones continue to be submitted to the "One Window" service.

"The deadline is February 19, so meetings are held more frequently. In January, there were still few applications, and we met with the applicants personally. Now, we have to consider more than 20 different life situations at one meeting. Of the first hundred, approximately 60% of applicants were denied because there were no grounds, including those confirmed by documents, to recognize the life situation as difficult. We consider a serious illness, dependents, for example, sick relatives, and similar circumstances as such. For instance, we exempted a former flight attendant from paying the fee, who had to quit her job to care for her sick parents," noted Zinaida Koroleva.

At the meeting, which took place today,

around 30 applications were reviewed. Several were postponed for verification of violations of employment legislation. In 16 cases, people were refused. Two citizens were exempted from paying 50% of the fee, and another five - in full. "Among those who consider it possible to evade financing of state expenses, there are many young people. These are people predominantly born in the 1990s and 1980s. Many have not had any entries in their work record book for a long time. Often we have to refuse because a person was deregistered with the employment service for violations - refusal of offered employment options, refusal to participate in mandatory public works, and so on. Moreover, even if a person independently found a job, but did not notify the employment service to deregister, this is also a violation of the law," added Zinaida Koroleva. Commission members emphasize that certificates from the place of work outside Belarus (mainly Russia) are checked by tax authorities. Therefore, dubious documents registered retroactively will not help to evade payment of the fee. In total, about 61 thousand notices were sent in the Vitebsk region, the largest number - to residents of Vitebsk (about 21 thousand).

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.