Aliaksei Shein: Tax for going abroad is more about ideology than economics

The coordinator of “Christian Movement” civic initiative believes that the authorities are driven by the fear of Western freedoms, survived from the Soviet times.

I am convinced that the idea of 100 dollar tax for leaving Belarus is not economically motivated, but rather bears a subconscious or even unconscious desire of the authorities to seriously restrict people the possibility to restrict the possibility to see the world overseas, - comments Aliaksei Shein the initiative of Aliaksandr Lukashenka to collect “$100 per head” from everyone who goes abroad to the EuroBelarus Information Service. – If we sum up a 100 dollar tax, 60 euros for Shengen visa and add the cost of tickets, it’ll turn out that there is no sense to go abroad.

 We are now on the first place with regard to the number of visas per citizen, and, of course, people who go abroad see the quality of goods, can compare their costs with the Belarusan and the level of freedom here and there. It becomes a good state propaganda vaccine for them. The authorities, in their turn, try to somehow complicate the procedure of travelling, if not ban it at all, using Soviet methods so that to keep Belarusans in cotton-wool of propaganda and strengthen the so-called “stability” with no possibility of discontent.

Let us say that Aliaksei Shein organized the initiative against an exit tax at Change.org website. About 25.000 voices against the weird initiative of the authorities have been collected for less than a week.