Council of the Republic passes social privileges bill

The Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus has univocally voted through the bill “State social privileges, rights and benefits for certain population categories” at a regular plenary session today. The bill passed its second reading at the Chamber of Representatives on May 25. The bill envisages changes in privileged tariffs on housing and utilities services for certain population categories. The bill specifies population categories entitled to free medications and a 50% discount on housing and utilities services. The benefit is now available only to parents of military, guerrillas and underground resistance fighters, who were killed or died during the Great Patriotic War, military who fell on the line in foreign countries, the Interior Ministry’s non-commissioned officers and officers who fell on the line. According to the bill’s authors, the alignment of the privileges system will bring privilege regulations in compliance with economic and financial capabilities of the country, resolve the problem of state budget underfunding, and remove unjustified differences in social security for the disabled. The bill will nominally save over Br168 billion. The money will be spent on state programmes aimed at increasing birth rate and alleviating consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.