Иллюстративное фото: Reform.by
Belarus is reducing the list of goods subject to state price regulation. When the controls were first introduced in 2022, they covered 300 product categories. The list was subsequently reduced several times and currently includes 199 categories. The Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade recently announced that the government had adopted a resolution reducing the number of regulated product categories to 76, mainly by removing non-food goods.
The resolution has not yet been published. However, OL was able to review the list.
According to the publication, almost all non-food goods have indeed been removed from the list, with only four categories remaining. These include diapers, sanitary pads, certain types of children’s clothing and footwear, mainly for infants and young children.
The list of food products subject to regulation has also been shortened. Retail mark-ups will no longer be regulated for milk, sour cream and kefir sold in glass containers, oat groats, toffee, confectionery, certain citrus fruits, juices and nectars. At the same time, the maximum permitted retail mark-ups for some products have been increased. For example, the cap for milk, kefir and sour cream has been set at 25% (previously the mark-up started from 15%), while the cap for tea has been set at 40% (previously from 30%).