Belarus plans to open another 8 taxpayer service centres by the end of the year, stated the Minister of Taxes and Levies, Sergei Nalivayko, during an online conference on the BELTA website.
Belarus plans to open another 8 taxpayer service centres by the end of the year, stated the Minister of Taxes and Levies, Sergei Nalivayko, during an online conference on the BELTA website.
"By the end of the year, we plan to open another 8 taxpayer service centres. Given that a significant number of entities, citizens, and taxpayers are moving to online interaction with the tax authorities, we will assess the required number of centres. We are not setting ourselves the task of creating taxpayer service centres in all tax inspectorates without exception. These centres will appear in large cities where a significant number of taxpayers are concentrated," explained Sergei Nalivayko.
The Minister recalled that a new building was recently opened in Brest, housing three inspectorates at once – two district inspectorates of Brest and the regional one. "This is also a pilot project, where several inspectorates are located in one place. We will see if this strategy proves effective, then a similar principle may be implemented in Pinsk. In addition, taxpayer service centres will be opened in Vitebsk, Bobruisk, Baranovichi, and Orsha," he noted.
Sergei Nalivayko said that the first taxpayer service centre was established in October 2016 at the Ministry of Taxes and Levies Inspectorate for the Moskovsky District of Minsk. Today, such centres operate in 13 inspectorates in Belarus, including six inspectorates in Minsk (Ministry of Taxes and Levies Inspectorates for Partizansky, Moskovsky, Pervomaisky, Zavodsky, Tsentralny, Frunzensky No. 1 districts) and seven in regional inspectorates (in Borisov, Zhlobin, Mogilev, Grodno, Vitebsk, and in two Ministry of Taxes and Levies Inspectorates of Brest). "And it's not just a change of name; the approaches to work are being fundamentally changed. In particular, we are moving away from assigning taxpayers to individual inspectors or inspectorates, which, in our opinion, is very important both in terms of improving the quality of services and in terms of combating corruption," he emphasised.
According to the minister, abandoning this fixed location is the first step towards transitioning to an extraterritorial service principle. "First and foremost, this will apply to individuals; subsequently, we will extend this principle to business entities. In 2019, we plan to offer individuals the opportunity for extraterritorial services. If we manage to pilot this option within 2019, then from 2020, we will offer a similar service method for business entities," he stated.