Economic Court to Find Out How BHC Observers Were Paid

Proceedings on the suit of Belarusian Helsinki Committee against tax inspection are delayed again. On June 14 the Economic court ruled to find out why the tax inspection decided payment of per diems to BHC observers of the parliamentary election-2000 had been ungrounded. Then dozens of BHC observers traveled to the rural polling stations to observe the election.
Per diems for the observers were set in the budget of the TACIS grant. Later Maskowski borough tax inspector considered this money as a profit and must be taxed. BHC head Tatsiana Protska and BHC chief accountant are charged with failure to pay taxes.
Minsk economic court decided to look through the materials of the criminal case. “If the court takes the side of the tax inspection and punishes us for paying per diem to observers, we will have problems in finding observers for the upcoming election”, -- says deputy head of Belarusian Helsinki Committee Harry Pahaniayla.
The proceedings on the suit of BHC against the tax inspection are delayed.