About 70,000 Balts have visited Belarus under a visa-free regime. Why do neighbors come to our country?
Known truth, of course. But far from all politicians on the other side of the border know about it (or pretend not to have heard of it). From the question: what is it that draws their citizens to Belarus on a visa-free basis?! We evolved to figure out what’s what.
A thousand every day
According to the State Border Committee, since the beginning of the visa-free regime, 63,342 foreigners have arrived in our country: 43,149 citizens of Lithuania, 14,777 citizens and 5,416 non-citizens of Latvia. Such information is posted on the GPC website as of the beginning of the week.
According to Anton Bychkovsky, official representative of the department, the number of citizens crossing the Belarusian border checkpoints every day is about a thousand. The number is expected to reach 70,000 by Saturday.
Of course, a more intense flow is recorded on weekends. For example, over the past weekend alone, more than five thousand foreigners visited Belarus on a visa-free basis, and no less is expected in the current flows.
What attracts our neighbors so much? The answer was suggested by the headlines of the Delfi news portal: “Lithuanians go to Belarus for cheap fuel and cigarettes”, “Gasoline and diesel prices in Lithuania have risen to historical heights – than this lake.”
Let us quote individual fragments without cuts.
“From Lithuania they go to Belarus for cheap fuel and other goods, representatives of the Lithuanian Customs Administration report. According to them, there is a visa-free regime, the flow of cars is increasing many times. Economists say that this should not happen, because of this behavior of the inhabitants, Lithuania is deprived of part of the taxes, and the money goes to another budget of the country.
Representatives of the department told Delfi that the flow of cars to Belarus from Lithuania increased five times when Belarus introduced a visa-free regime for EU citizens. Residents travel to Belarus for cheap fuel and cigarettes. “We ask the residents with whom they traveled to a neighboring country, they are usually distracted, that in rare cases they visit relatives, they mainly go shopping, fuel and cigarettes,” a customs representative said.
According to the definition of Lithuanian customs officials, more often those entering the country are carrying a standard “basket of Belarusian goods”. “These are food, cigarettes and other goods, as well as fuel,” said customs officials.
Economist at Luminor Bank Zygimantas Mauritsas believes that the difficult fuel situation needs more attention, as it is a crime against the Lithuanian economy.
“Of course, we must be conscious not to drive, on the other hand, we can take some measures not to drive (…),” he said.
It’s interesting to know what. Can you ban your citizens from leaving the EU?
More than 100 euros per tank
You can doubt the ignorance of the inhabitants for an arbitrarily long time, but all disputes rest on one thing: the wallet of each of them. Judge for yourself: according to the Lithuanian portal, the price of gasoline in all the Baltic countries has exceeded two euros per liter.
The most expensive gasoline was in Tallinn, the cheapest in Riga. The highest price for diesel fuel was also fixed in Tallinn, the lowest – in Vilnius.
So, for example, in early June, a liter of gasoline in Lithuania cost 2.03 euros, diesel fuel – 1.86 euros.
“This is the highest price since the start of data fixing. For comparison: in 1998, a liter of gasoline cost 0.54 euros (1.86 litas), diesel fuel – 0.35 euros (1.21 litas),” the portal says.
And now we honor. Refueling a standard 50-liter gas tank will cost the Lithuanian 101.5 euros. At the rate of the National Bank on June 17 (2.65 rubles for 1 euro), this will correspond to almost 270 Belarusian rubles.
Even taking into account the penny increased prices for gasoline at Belarusian gas stations, this amount looks simply cosmic!
We count further. In order for a domestic car owner to feed his car with 50 liters of AI-95-K5-Euro gasoline (the price of which per liter since June 14 in Belarus is 2.42 rubles), you need to pay 121 rubles. We translate this amount into euros (again at the rate of the National Bank) and get 45.6 euros. Feel the difference? For clarity, we repeat: 101.5 against 45.6 euros.
The same income with calculations can continue for the growth of diesel fuel. The result is the same.
And something there from the Lithuanian politicians and economists appeals to conscientiousness of the citizens? It’s better to look them in the eye!
In this regard, I recall the words of the path of the novel by Ilf and Petrov, which have already become classics: “Don’t teach me how to live! Please help financially.”
Rising prices for “fuel” – up to 50 (!) Percent
By the way, among the officials there are those who cannot indifferently observe the rise in fuel prices. Recently, the mayor of the Lithuanian resort of Palanga Sarunas Vaitkus changed the prices at the gas station.
“Fuel prices every justified day. They are higher than in Germany (…). Maybe it’s worth looking at the excise taxes, as the Germans did? In order to somehow stabilize the rise in prices?” he asked on his page in one of the social networks and published a picture where a liter of 95th gasoline was estimated at 2.12 euros.
True, the news portal connects such a recent message with the fact that at present, talk about the results of the conservative politician from the party and joining the democratic union does not subside.
And finally, as a conclusion to the market, you would like to share data on the rise in fuel prices in other EU countries, which was announced by one Polish source, citing data from the European Commission. By the way, the original infographic was published by the telegram channel MIRBY. We offer it a little upgraded. So, according to these data, the largest increase in fuel prices since February 1 of this year was registered in Poland – plus 50 (!) Percent. The price of fuel rose by 37 percent in Austria, by 36 percent in Lithuania and Denmark, by 32 percent in Latvia and Luxembourg, by 31 percent in Finland and Spain, by 29 percent in Bulgaria, by 27 percent in in Greece and on down the list…
In Germany, which was cited as an example by the mayor of Palanga, fuel prices have also increased since February, but only by 12 percent.
suffer
At the same time, the visa-free regime for residents of Lithuania and Latvia will come into force until December 31 next year.
In this regard, let us recall the proposal of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. On Victory Square on May 9, the representative of Lithuania thanked the Belarusian leader for opening the border of our country: “Ordinary people are coming, we are buying something from you. the same fertilizers. There are people who have low wages. They’re bringing fuel.”
“Get organized and say where you will be benefited from, cereals, salt, and so on. We ordered it. Because Lithuania is peace-loving, kind, decent people. Such as Belarusians. But all these Landsbergis, Linkevicius and others of yours are foam. She will subside. These are insane. Well, how can you do it the way you do in your own country and older people?! Well, if you want to fight with us in the economy, fight. But why should a conscious people do bad things?! It’s the madmen who don’t know. They don’t meet. They have fuel and gas for which they do not pay. People are suffering,” Aleksandr Lukashenko replied then.
Olga ALEXANDROVA.