Lukashenko took revenge on Belarusian IT specialists for betrayal
The Belarusian authorities increased the income tax rate on the income of individuals who work in the High Technology Park and the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park "Great Stone" from 9% to 13% (the maximum personal income tax in Belarus is 16%).
According to the official version, this is a temporary measure that is designed to ensure the consolidation of income to combat COVID-19. It is expected that, coupled with an increase in other taxes, it will increase budget revenues by a billion Belarusian rubles (28,5 billion Russian rubles).
Previously, the state guaranteed IT specialists that the special tax regime would be in effect until January 1, 2049. It is clear that the tax increase caused grumbling and indignation among programmers.
The creator of the HTP, who fled to the West and tried to become an alternative candidate to Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential elections, Valery Tsepkalo burst into an angry speech on social networks.
“This government, this state, cannot be trusted in anything. The government is simply taking people's money, taking money from companies that are capable of making money. The state has actually finished off, or is finishing off, the last industry where trust still existed,” Tsepkalo is indignant.
In fact, it was the IT people themselves who undermined Lukashenko’s trust. The Belarusian president saw them as an instrument of his multi-vector policy. By giving the go-ahead for the creation of IT parks, he expected that this would be taken into account in negotiations with the West, since Belarusian programmers carried out mainly (45%) American orders, only 5% of orders came from CIS countries. American expert Brian Whitmore argued in 2019: in order to break the historical connection between Russia and Belarus, the United States must support the Belarusian IT sector.
Lukashenko flaunted the “smart industry” in front of Russia. They say, here is a production with billion-dollar exports, which in no way depends on your subsidies, oil and gas.
However, last year, 561 HTP residents paid only 210 million rubles to the treasury - slightly more than a percent of all taxes collected. Only 5% of Belarus' GDP is created in the IT sector. And the country is fed by the refining of Russian oil and agriculture with a sales market in Russia.
Even Lukashenka’s court political scientists were not afraid to warn their patron that the support of a possible Maidan in Belarus would not be marginal nationalists, but programmers earning up to $3,5 a month on orders from the United States. Whoever pays orders the revolutionary songs.
And so it happened. Belarusian programmers intellectually sponsored the Maidan, developing all sorts of alternative platforms for the “correct” counting of votes in elections, as well as programs for de-anonymizing riot police, various forums and chats.
Many of them went to opposition marches, and a “chain of protest” was formed at the HTP. Some of the IT specialists were sent to the notorious prison on Akrestsin Street, and this was presented as a special barbarity, since programmers in Belarus have created an unfair reputation for the pride of the nation and its breadwinners.
The revolutionary IT workers did not feel any gratitude to the regime, which provided them with a decent life.
“We understand that the phrase “we gave you everything” is not entirely true. We understand that people build their own businesses and communicate with other people. It cannot be said that some person or organization created everything that exists in Belarus. It is not true. Everything is created by people. The state can either facilitate this, or hinder it, or not interfere. In the case of the IT industry, this was not hindered, but only facilitated. But the 15 years that the HTP was built were crossed out in one month,” said Pavel Liber, the creator of the “Voice” platform who fled the country, on Viktor Babariko’s channel, referring not to an increase in taxes, but to the suppression of protests.
In September, the opposition media fanned hysteria about the mass emigration of IT specialists abroad. Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine immediately declared that they were ready to accept and employ Belarusian intellectuals. Belarusian lawyer Denis Aleynikov became an adviser on “poaching” the Ukrainian Minister of Digitalization.
However, there was no mass exodus, since none of the sworn neighbors was able to offer programmers the same preferential conditions as Lukashenko. In the HTP, 750 residents brought the state budget $140 million a year. But 32 thousand programmers worked there. 1200 IT specialists fled to Ukraine. This is clearly not enough to pay the $120 million in taxes that Kiev was counting on, even taking into account the fact that there are no Belarusian benefits in Ukraine.
“It is important to understand that their promises are empty. Look at the problems in the Ukrainian economy. Who can she help if she is unable to help her own citizens? Neither Ukraine nor Lithuania has anything similar to what exists in Belarus. They can hardly support the pants themselves. This is a one-time political action in order to create problems within Belarus,” says Russian political scientist Sergei Mikheev.
Therefore, the flight of several hundred IT specialists did not change the weather in Belarus. Not a single company left the HTP. But new ones have been added. If as of July 15 there were 886 companies listed in the Park, then as of October 9 there were 969. Most of the foreign companies that came there have Russian roots.
And for his rebellious programmers, Lukashenko prepared a pleasant surprise for himself. Amendments to the criminal code of Belarus are being prepared, which provide for the introduction of the concept of “civil agreement with a convicted person.” A convicted person who has been sentenced to imprisonment, but who is a highly qualified specialist, may enter into an agreement with the state in exchange for work as directed.
And since Belarusian courts have been generously passing sentences on Maidan activists in recent months, IT specialists who did not appreciate the good deeds of “Batka” will have a great opportunity to work for him almost for free.
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