List of non-profit organizations with rent preferences shortened more than twice

According to the new ruling of the government on the use of a discount factor of payment for rent, 256 Belarusian non-profit orgnanizations are deprived of preferential rental rates.

On 30 April the Council of Ministers adopted Decree № 327 "On approval of the list of public organizations (associations) and their organizational structures, foundations, associations of legal entities and (or) individual entrepreneurs (associations and unions), for which the reduction ratioof 0.1 is applied during the rent of premises, and the invalidation of certain decisions of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus."

This list replaces the previous list of non-profit organizations that had tenancy facilities, dated 9 April 2010. The list of 2010 was periodically replenished with new organizations and for the year 2012 contained 451 non-profit organizations the cost of rent for which was ten times smaller compared to the other tenants.

Approved on 30 April 2013, the new list provides a benefit only for 195 public associations, their organizational structures, foundations, unions and associations. Thus, the number of non-profit organizations that will now enjoy preferential rents premises decreased from 451 to 195 organizations – more than twice.

The vast majority of organizations that remain in the list of beneficiaries, are charitable, Chernobyl, humanitarian and sports organizations. Among the organizations that previously enjoyed preferential policies, but were not included in the new list there are the World Association of Belarusians "Backawscyna", the Belarusian Language Society named after Frantsysk Skaryna, The Belarusian Association of UNESCO Clubs, the Belarusian Public 'unification' Environmental Initiative, the Public Charity Organization "Drop of Life"(consisting of blood donors), the public association of Lithuanians "Tevine", the international charitable organization "Nadzeya Express", the International NGO "Palestinian Community", the public associatioon "Children of Chernobyl", Mahiliou Jewish community and the Belarusian SOS Foundation "Children's Village". All in all, 256 organizations were deprived of benefits and will have to pay full rent for their premises.

One should keep in mind that rent for premises increased from April 1 this year by almost 60%. If during the period from 1 April 2012 to 1 April 2013 the amount of rent was calculated on the basis of the basic rent traff of 54,000 rubles, the present tariff is 86,000 rubles.

Interestingly, compared with the previous list, the number of political parties, which had rent benefits, decreased: benefits were left to the Communist Party and the Republican Party of Labor and Justice, whereas the Belarusian Social and Sportive Party, the Belarusian Patriotic Party and the Agrarian Party of Belarus were denied benefits.

In the future, new organizations can be included in the list through the introduction of amendments by the Council of Ministers. For instance, the ruling of 2010 originally contained 401 organizations of beneficiaries and was supplemented with more than 50 non-profit organizations during the three years of its action.