Economic Effects
• The Institute of Economics of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences estimates that the country’s economic damage over 30 years (1986 - 2015) will be US$235 billion, or over 32 annual national budgets. Chernobyl-related costs accounted for 16.8 per cent of the country’s national budget in 1991, and in 1996 it was still 10.9 per cent. Currently the republic is investing about 6 per cent of its budget in the official Chernobyl programme.
• According to a survey by UNDP and UNICEF, in the contaminated territories of Belarus, 54 large agricultural and forestry enterprises and nine industrial enterprises had to be closed. 22 raw material deposits could no longer be used. In the contaminated territories of Ukraine, 20 collective farms and 13 companies had to be abandoned.
• Belarus and Ukraine levy an emergency tax, or Chernobyl tax, for dealing with the disaster. Initially, all companies, except for those in the agricultural sector, had to pay 18 or 19 per cent of their salary costs to the State. This tax is still levied in both countries, but has now dropped to only four per cent in Belarus. Russia never levied a Chernobyl tax. There, government borrowing funded the State’s costs.
• In 1997 the international community entrusted the EBRD with managing the Chernobyl Shelter Fund. The G7 countries, the European Union, Ukraine and other countries have so far pledged approximately € 720 million to the fund. The CSF finances a comprehensive programme to deal with the long-term dangers posed by Chernobyl. Along with constructing the new containment shelter, the programme includes stabilising the existing shelter and providing an integrated monitoring system to report on radiation, structural stability and seismic events, among other things.
