Minsk - Tighter import laws will increase the price of most
perfumes used by Belarusian women by fifty per cent or more, the
Belapan news agency reported Thursday.
New laws announced by the country's authoritarian leader President
Aleksander Lukashenko make illegal the sale of foreign perfumes
within the former Soviet republic, unless the retailer holds an
import licence for the goods.
The decrees, set to go into effect next week, will practically ban
all trade of perfume in the country, except by a few state-owned
stores.
Belarusian women in recent years have overwhelmingly preferred
French and Italian perfumes to scents manufactured in Belarus. Most
often they have purchased their perfumes from private traders at open
air markets.
'We are going to see an increase of the price of top market
perfumes by at least fifty per cent, and the economy brands may
disappear entirely,' said Anatoliy Shumchenko, a spokesman for the
Perspektivi consumer rights group.
Knock-off perfumes manufactured in India or China copying major
brand names are available in Belarus, but most Belarusian perfume
users are willing to pay a premium price for the real article.
Lukashenko's government in recent months has embarked on a
campaign to reduce domestic consumer spending on imported luxury
goods, to improve national balance of payments.
The perfume decree is also in keeping with a Lukashenko policy of
putting government pressure on small businessmen, one of the few
sectors of Belarusian society openly critical of the former
collective farm boss.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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