Belarusian authorities set to amend Decree No 3

The Belarusian authorities are planning to introduce amendments to the ‘freeloaders’ tax’ (President's Decree No 3 "On preventing social parasitism") but they will not abolish it, vice speaker of the House of Representatives Balyaslau Pirshtuk told tut.by. The proposed amendments, being developed by a working group headed by the head of President’s Administration Natallya Kachanava, will be ready by mid-March, he added.

People who should not be affected by the decree will be exempt from the tax, Pirshtuk said. “Our analysis has proved that there are citizens who do not deserve to pay this tax. The aim of the decree was to make citizens work - not punish them,” the vice speaker noted.

Unauthorized protests took place in all major Belarusian cities in late February and early March, with several thousand people participating. Alyaksandr Lukashenka criticized the protests against Decree 3, hinting that 'some forces aimed to undermine the country's stability.'