Belarus: Belarusian brewers began on March 1 supplying special identification marks to beer, Interfax communicated. Belarus has began labeling beer with new identification signs to enforce the president's decree No.444 dated Sept. 14, 2004 "Applying Control (Identification) Labeling." Beer and motor oil are on the labeling list. The labeling will be applied both to foreign and domestic products.

The source explained, beer marking has been introduced to reduce the "shadow" beer market. Experts state that about 10 million decalitres of beer are annually brought to Belarus, while the official imports last year made only 12 million litres.

Such a great amount of unregistered imports is emerging due to the absence of customs registration of imports from Russia. The new identification labels will allow increased customs proceeds and create equal conditions to all players of the domestic beer market.

The Ministry for Taxes and Dues reports, the labeling will bring an additional BYR 10 billion to the state budget, in particular, BYR 2-3 billion will come with excise. Besides, legalisation of beer turnover will boost its production volumes, increasing tax proceeds from the activity.

New marking is not a tax or a variant of excise, so it will not have a negative impact on the economic activity of breweries, the Ministry stated.

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