Belarusians paid $300 million of car customs

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The car rush did not only cause foreign currency problems. It was also a profit. The car business made more than 300 million dollars for the budget in the first six months of the year!

“The car sales commission exceeded the yearly norm in the first half of the year. People paid more than $300 million car customs”, - says the deputy head of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus Syarhei Paludzen.

Let us remind you that Belarusians imported 258 thousand cars in the first six months of 2011. It is twice more than last year.

“Compare: they used to import 180 thousand cars a year”, - says Syarhei Paludzen.
Everyone remembers that Alyaksandr Lukashenka accused the population of the crisis because they “had exported 3 billion dollars from the country”. “We lack the 3 billions”, - said the state leader.

However, Euroradio has drawn attention to the fact that if people imported twice as many cars it means that they paid twice as more car customs!

8.4 thousand dollars is the average price for an imported car. The customs clearance of one car totals about 10% - that’s about 800 euro.

Interestingly, the money exported by Belarusians from the country was their own. However, the money they paid for the customs clearance was received by the budget.

Economist Leanid Zlotnikau thinks that the export of 3 billion dollars from Belarus did not cause the economic crisis in any way.


Leanid Zlotnikau: “If consider the reason for the economic crisis, we should be interested in the foreign currency influx and flow-out and their type does not matter. It either goes to the budget or stays in people’s purses… the country borrowed an additional 11 million dollars in the past 1.5 years. It exceeded the foreign currency flow-out caused by car import a lot. It means that the money we spent on cars is a trifle in comparison with the foreign currency we received due at the cost of the foreign debt growth”.