Starting February 1, 2009 full-fledged declarative state registration of businesses will be introduced in Belarus except for banks and non-banking credit and finance institutions. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed relevant decree No 1 on January 16, the press service of the head of state told BelTA. A business will be entitled to state registration without refusal within one day after submitting a minimal package of documents. A legal person will have to submit an application, the charter and confirmation of the state duty payment. The legal person will get the registration certificate the next business day. A self-employed businessman will have to provide an application, a photo, and confirmation of the state duty payment. Applicants are responsible for legality of the provided documents and correctness of the information they contain. Operation of businesses, which used deliberately false documents during registration, is banned and their registration is deemed invalid. Revenues of such businesses are claimed by the local budget. Persons responsible can be prosecuted and can apply for state registration only one year after the state registration was invalidated. The decree has essentially eased requirements for foundation documents of market participants. The minimal list of documents required for opening a settlement account has been largely curtailed. The decree also simplifies liquidation of businesses, enforces one-stop procedures during business liquidation. The list of reasons for liquidation of legal persons and discontinuation of activities of self-employed businessmen has been reduced as much as possible. An economic entity can be liquidated of its own free will, by an economic court ruling (for violating legislation, as a result of bankruptcy, reduction of net assets below the level of the legal capital) and by the registration body (due to an uncollectible debt, no business operation for 12 months in a row). The press service remarked, the decree represents one more step in economy liberalisation, removal of the bureaucratic barriers, which hinders business start-up, and indicates the government’s trust in businesses and the readiness of government agencies to build partnership relations with legal persons and self-employed businessmen. БЕЛТА
Written by belta.by
