‘Social Parasite Tax’ Stokes Protests in ‘Europe’s Last Dictatorship’

[Riddick]

The autocratic president of Belarus, the former Soviet republic nicknamed “Europe’s last dictatorship,” has triggered angry protests by refusing to abolish a controversial tax on the underemployed.

Dubbed “the tax on social parasites,” the scheme fines citizens a fee of 233 euros ($250) if they fail to work for at least 183 days in a year.

Protestors took to the streets of four cities on Sunday, calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, a despot who has been in power since 1994.

The protests went ahead despite Lukashenko agreeing to a concession last week to suspend implementation of the tax for this year.

The unpopular presidential decree, entitled “On preventing social dependency,” was originally issued in April 2015. It was ostensibly implemented in 2016, but Lukashenko last week suspended implementation for 2017 in response to the protests, while stressing that it would be adjusted, not abolished altogether.

A Reuters report citing figures from Belarus’ last tax inspection, found that only about one in ten of the 470,000 people liable for the tax for not working enough in 2016 actually paid it.

Belarus’ economy is a centralized, state-controlled one. It has been retracting, stuck in a recession for over a year. The average monthly salary has fallen from an all-time high of $630 in mid-2014 to $380.

For his part, Lukashenko has been making efforts to reduce his country's dependence on Russia, and advocates better engagement with the European Union.

Apart from Russia, Belarus is the only country in Europe to earn a “not free” grade in Freedom House’s annual evaluation of countries’ records on political rights and civil liberties.

FULL STORY

[Doka]

What a nutty world we live in!