Belarus threatened to mobile operators to state regulation of tariffs.

KommentariiSotovaya devalvatsiya11.02.2009Rossiyskie operators have begun to raise prices for Belarus roumingMinisterstvo economy may enter a state regulation of tariffs for services of mobile operators if they did not rescind its recent decision to significantly increase costs. This statement was made by Minister of Economy Nikolai Zaichenko, the PRIME-TASS.
According to the publication, the Ministry of Economy has already sent letters to two operators, MTS and Velcom, with the requirement to reduce tariffs.
In January, notes Reuters, the company raised prices by an average of 18 percent, citing an increase in its costs in connection with the devaluation of the Belarusian ruble. At the same time, the Minister of Communications Nikolai Panteley said that raising the tariff has been agreed with the Ministry of Economy. According Panteleev, "it was agreed that an increase of 0.16 percent due to growth rates in the general level of inflation suppose."
Belarus held a devaluation of the currency at the beginning of this year, weakening the Belarusian ruble against the dollar and the euro by around 20 per cent. Because of this, in January, consumer price inflation in the country amounted to 4.1 per cent, like Reuters. The Government of Belarus has deprived a number of trade licenses of companies to obtain lower prices.
The main operators in the market of cellular communication in Belarus are Velcom, owned by Austria Telecom, controlled by the Turkish Turkcell "Belarusian Telecommunications Network, as well as the ITT, where Belarus prinadlazhit 51 per cent of the shares.