Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 22 September (BelTA) – The Belarusian government earned $250 million more year-to-date from the same period a year prior thanks to the effort to improve transit appeal of Belarus and create favorable business environment, Chairman of Belarus’ State Customs Committee Yuri Senko told the media as he presented a report to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.

One of the matters discussed during the working meeting was the generation of revenues for the budget in the areas of responsibility of the State Customs Committee. Alexander Lukashenko enquired about the statistics on the movement of goods, vehicles, and people across the border. “I hear some unbelievable numbers again. The traffic of goods and people soared by a third. How does it benefit us?” the Belarusian leader asked.

According to Yuri Senko, the State Customs Committee fully meets the target set forth for the revenue collection. He clarified that this is about the estimated numbers based on the statistics on the economics and business and on the projections. “When compared with the same period last year, the amount of payments to the budget increased by $249 million due to effective work, intensified export-import operations and transit via Belarus,” the official said.

Yuri Senko added that the transit of goods via Belarus grew by 24%. The traffic of freight transport surged by 17%, that of people by 18%, buses by 13%, and rail transport by 12%.

“All this was made possible because transit via Belarus has become more attractive and business environment has become more favorable. In total, these aspects enabled us to increase the revenues because large amounts of goods were handled in Belarus,” Yuri Senko underlined.