Finance Ministry Says It Is Not Considering an Increase in VAT

The Belarusian Finance Ministry is not considering raising VAT following the examples of Russia and Kazakhstan, Finance Minister Yury Seliverstau said.

“At the moment, the issue of increasing VAT to the Russian level has not been considered. It is premature for us to examine this; we need to look at their experience (Russia and Kazakhstan) and see how it goes,” BelTA reported.

Russia will raise VAT to 22% starting 1 January. Kazakhstan has also decided to increase VAT from the new year, from 12% to 16%.

In Belarus, the base VAT rate is 20%, although lower rates apply to certain goods and services.