Scandalous “Vybor”: Belarusians won’t put up with rising costs for cars

• 26.01.2010, 10:21

That was a result of a survey on January 25 during the talk-show “Vybor” (“Choice”) at ONT TV channel.

The new program of the talk-show “Vybor” was dedicated to the price hike for cars connected with the new customs duties in the framework of the Customs Union. TV Viewers were offered to answer the question: “Are you ready to put up with the new duties for foreign cars for the sake of all the pulses of the Customs Union?”

The results of the poll were the following: only 475 persons said “yes”, 10,937 said “no”.

The diagram of the results of the voting was published in the web by blogger belnetmon. The most amazing thing, to his mind, is that these results were allowed to be shown on air.

“I think that persons responsible for that and allowed undesirable results of the poll in the talk-show of the ONT channel, would be punished,” the blogger said.

As it was informed before, duties for vehicles imported by physical person since July 1 this year would be increased to the level of analogous Russian duties. The rates of customs duties for cars imported by physical persons in Russia are much higher than in Belarus. Thus, in Russia duties for used cars vary from 1.5 Euro for 1 cubic metre to 5.8 Euro per 1 cubic metre of engine capacity.

The rates for legal persons have been increased since January 1, 2010. Belarusian car dealers started work in the new year by closing down, and then increased prices. Prices have gone up by 20-30% as compared to 2009.