They may only lease the land on which their property stands for a period of up to 99 years. Formal import licenses are required only for industrial waste and chemical fertilizers. Certification of imported equipment in the communications and industrial sectors can,however, be bureaucratically difficult. Complicated registration procedures are required to engage in scrap metal trading, as the Belarusian government seeks to discourage organized crime elements from engaging in this and other lucrative trading operations. Bureaucracy, lack of infrastructure and complexities arising from the Customs Union with Russia result in burdensome customs procedures.
Commercial truckers can wait at the borders from Poland and Lithuania for as long as three days.
In the summer of 1995 Belarus introduced a fee structure for any vehicle entering from abroad, whether driving to or through Belarus. There are no overt export subsidies policies on the part of the Belarusian government. However, there are indirect subsidies to many state owned enterprises, most of which export their products. Under governmental pressure, the National Bank and commercial banks have been required to provide loans to these enterprises at less than the commercial lending rate. The IMF is urging cessation of these indirect subsidies.