The President harshly criticised the government for the problems in the sphere of utility payments and passenger fare on February 22. If we increase the tariffs, we will offend people, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said. He even suggested publicly putting the handcuffs on ‘a few dozen people’ for failing to stick to his demands as regards the tariffs.
Lukashenka lifted his notebook when speaking about the passenger fare and his notes were caught on BELTA’s camera. Economist Syarhei Chaly paid attention to it first. He has deciphered some of the notes: “Increa[se] of fu[el] tarif[fs] by 50%”, tobacco excise, tariffs… need to be revised…” .