The Russian government has prepared a new package of business support, the main goal of which will be to maintain and increase employment. Izvestia writes about this with reference to the minutes of the meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov.
First of all, the authorities are going to restart the lending program for small, medium and large businesses, within the framework of which loans were supposed to pay salaries to employees at an almost zero rate.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) should be helped by preferential loans with a discount of 2-3 percentage points, which are compensated to banks by means of subsidies from the budget. A condition for obtaining them will be an increase in the number of personnel by 10 percent. Also, companies from the most affected industries can have their tax and insurance premium debts written off. This is likely to affect the tourism and hotel industry, catering and the organization of cultural events. Earlier in November, they were already granted tax holidays.
To reduce taxes on property of individuals and legal entities, it was proposed to fix the cadastral value of offices, retail facilities and public catering outlets. Separately, for companies that have lost the right to use simplified tax conditions during the pandemic, a special transition period will be provided.
As follows from the document, the list of measures is not final; it can either be expanded or reduced. The final study will be carried out by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Tax Service (FTS). The Central Bank and the SME Corporation will help them. The final version of the document should be ready by March 1, 2021.
The NKR rating agency estimates the volume of spending on these programs at 150-200 billion rubles, but the main issue is budget possibilities. The amount depends on both the availability of funds and the choice of industries to be supported.
Earlier, the first deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Andrei Isaev, said that the party does not support the idea of a minimum basic income in the country.