Tougher sanctions against Belarus' transport industry could reduce revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars - CASE Belarus
<p> MINSK, Jun 17 - PrimePress. The tightening of the EU sanctions against Belarus’ transport industry may result in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues, reckons Dmitry Babitsky, an expert of the Centre for Social and Economic Research at CASE Belarus. </p> <p> </p> <p> The expert shared his point of view on June 16 during the presentation of CASE Belarus survey “What can Belarus’ transport industry lose because of the sanctions?” </p> <p> </p> <p> In his words, state-owned companies - pipeline operators, Belarusian Railways (BZhD) and Belavia - are under great risk of sanctions in the transport sector. </p> <p> </p> <p> “Now they are blocking air transportation (Belavia and cargo airlines) and slap a ban on flights through the territory of Belarus for Western companies. Harsher bans can be introduced, which will cause minimum losses of hundreds of millions of dollars plus the lost revenues fr om air transport and transit,” said Babitsky. </p> <p> </p> <p> If the export of petroleum products and potash fertilizers is affected, the expert noted that Belarusian Railways will incur serious losses. </p> <p> </p> <p> “Possible losses of Belarusian Railways may be significant. It is a backbone company which has branches in many cities of the country and the losses of the company may have a serious social effect. BZhD made money on transit, subsidized domestic passenger traffic and even freight traffic at the expense of transit revenues. A strike on transit may cause a serious chain reaction, which will increase pressure on unprofitable tariffs, on the company personnel,” said Babitsky. </p> <p> </p> <p> As previously reported, on May 23, a Ryanair airline plane flying from Athens to Vilnius was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk National Airport after an alleged bomb threat was received. A number of countries have closed their airspace for Belarusian air carriers and prohibited their airlines to fly over Belarus. As a result, the geography of Belavia flights reduced to nine countries, the company said it could not perform flights to 20 countries and Kaliningrad (Russia), wh ere it used to fly. End </p> <p> </p> <p> As previously reported, after the August 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, a political crisis began in the country. The authorities responded to the protests of citizens who disagreed with the election results with harsh repression and persecution. Since October 2020, the EU has already introduced three packages of sanctions against the Belarusian authorities, and after the Ryanair incident in Minsk a fourth package is in the pipeline. The fourth package of sanctions may be approved at the June 21 meeting of the Council of the Foreign Affairs Ministries of EU member states. End </p> <p> </p>
2021-06-18
Primepress
Tougher sanctions against Belarus' transport industry could reduce revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars - CASE Belarus
MINSK, Jun 17 - PrimePress. The tightening of the EU sanctions against Belarus’ transport industry may result in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues, reckons Dmitry Babitsky, an expert of the Centre for Social and Economic Research at CASE Belarus.
The expert shared his point of view on June 16 during the presentation of CASE Belarus survey “What can Belarus’ transport industry lose because of the sanctions?”
In his words, state-owned companies - pipeline operators, Belarusian Railways (BZhD) and Belavia - are under great risk of sanctions in the transport sector.
“Now they are blocking air transportation (Belavia and cargo airlines) and slap a ban on flights through the territory of Belarus for Western companies. Harsher bans can be introduced, which will cause minimum losses of hundreds of millions of dollars plus the lost revenues fr om air transport and transit,” said Babitsky.
If the export of petroleum products and potash fertilizers is affected, the expert noted that Belarusian Railways will incur serious losses.
“Possible losses of Belarusian Railways may be significant. It is a backbone company which has branches in many cities of the country and the losses of the company may have a serious social effect. BZhD made money on transit, subsidized domestic passenger traffic and even freight traffic at the expense of transit revenues. A strike on transit may cause a serious chain reaction, which will increase pressure on unprofitable tariffs, on the company personnel,” said Babitsky.
As previously reported, on May 23, a Ryanair airline plane flying from Athens to Vilnius was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk National Airport after an alleged bomb threat was received. A number of countries have closed their airspace for Belarusian air carriers and prohibited their airlines to fly over Belarus. As a result, the geography of Belavia flights reduced to nine countries, the company said it could not perform flights to 20 countries and Kaliningrad (Russia), wh ere it used to fly. End
As previously reported, after the August 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, a political crisis began in the country. The authorities responded to the protests of citizens who disagreed with the election results with harsh repression and persecution. Since October 2020, the EU has already introduced three packages of sanctions against the Belarusian authorities, and after the Ryanair incident in Minsk a fourth package is in the pipeline. The fourth package of sanctions may be approved at the June 21 meeting of the Council of the Foreign Affairs Ministries of EU member states. End