Government Should Liberalize Prices This Year, Business Association Suggests

The government should introduce discretion over pricing this year, Viktar Marhelaw, first vice chairperson of the Minsk City Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (MCUEE), said at a round-table discussion held on June 13 on the occasion of the Belarusian Enterprise Revival Day, BelaPAN said.

Government price setting is a serious impediment to the development of businesses, Mr. Marhelaw said. “The business community and governmental agencies are at one in thinking that we should move toward pricing discretion,” he said. “However, the business community insists that this can be 90 percent done in 2008, but the Ministry of Economy believes that this should take at least three years.”

The Ministry of Economy is ready to allow companies to raise prices by no more than 0.5 percent per month, “but energy prices are rising very quickly and 0.5 percent is nothing,” Mr. Marhelaw said.

According to him, the ministry also agrees to extend the list of items whose prices are not controlled by the government by adding a few dozen items, whereas the MCUEE believes that thousands of items could be removed from the government’s price control, as they do not influence inflation.

The MCUEE also suggests abolishing price control for small enterprises. “Prices in the sector are determined by the market situation, that is why it is inexpedient to apply price control to them,” Mr. Marhelaw said. “Many small enterprises currently operate at a loss, as they have no right to raise prices,” he noted. “We may quickly enter into a crisis and lose the small business sector.”