Law No. 345-Z amending laws on the manufacturing and circulation of liquors.

This Law introduces extensive provisions modifying “Law No. 429-Z On state regulation of manufacturing and trade of liquors”. In particular: (a) dealing with retail trade in alcoholic beverages considered entrepreneurial activity related to the acquisition and sale or sale of alcoholic beverages for personal, family, household and other similar use, not related to entrepreneurial activity, as well as the sale and organization of consumption of alcoholic beverages in the process of public catering; (b) the right to manufacture, export, import, store (as a type of entrepreneurial activity) alcoholic, non-food alcohol-containing products and non-food ethyl alcohol, wholesale and retail trade in them is granted only to legal entities of the Republic of Belarus; (c) the right to produce cognacs, brandy and cognac-based beverages is granted only to state legal entities or legal entities, more than 30 percent of whose shares (shares in authorized capital) are owned by the Republic of Belarus and (or) its administrative-territorial units; (d) individual entrepreneurs registered in the Republic of Belarus have the right to carry out retail trade in alcoholic beverages in public catering facilities and import and (or) retail trade in non-alimentary alcohol-containing products packaged in consumer packaging with a capacity of no more than 1 liter (weight no more than 1 kilogram; (e) the manufacturing of alcoholic, non-alimentary alcohol-containing products and non-alimentary ethyl alcohol is carried out by legal entities on the basis of a license; (f) the main technological equipment for the production of alcoholic, non-food alcohol-containing products and non-food ethyl alcohol is subject to state registration by the State Committee for Standardization; and (g) manufacturing of original alcoholic beverages is carried out by legal entities according to the list determined by the Council of Ministers in agreement with the President of the Republic of Belarus; the conditions and procedure for the inclusion of legal entities in the specified list, making changes to it, and excluding legal entities from this list are determined by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.