Benefits are being cleaned out of fish – Newspaper Kommersant No. 43 (7488) of 03/15/2023

Fish producers initiated a revision of the rules for distributing the tax burden on businesses. The Association of Fishing Fleet Owners (ASRF) is trying to get the Ministry of Agriculture to exclude large players from the number of city and village forming organizations (GPOs) in order to deprive them of those benefits for paying fees for the use of resources. This may lead to an increase in payments by 2 billion rubles. per year, but carries risks for social projects.

ASRF (includes the structures of the Russian Fishery Company and the Norebo holding) recommended that the RSPP industry commission propose to the Ministry of Agriculture to exclude large businesses from the number of GPOs. Kommersant was told about this in the ASRF. The initiative will be discussed on March 15, German Zverev, head of the RSPP commission, president of the All-Russian Association of Fisheries Industry, told Kommersant.

Companies with GPO status pay 15% fee for the use of aquatic biological resources (FBR). According to the ASRF, in the Far East, seven out of 13 GPOs are large companies without fixed social obligations with growing revenues and gross profits, able to work without benefits and subsidies. Among the players with GPO status in the region are the structures of the Gidrostroy holding, ex-senator from the Sakhalin Region Alexander Verkhovsky, and Ozernovsky RKZ No. 55, which is associated with the family of the governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako. In these companies, “Kommersant” did not promptly respond.

ASRF President Aleksey Osintsev notes that in 2023 the rates of fees for the extraction of WBR increased, and the benefits extended to all industry participants were canceled, which gave unreasonable competitive advantages to large companies in the status of GPO. According to him, for those, this status does not carry a social or economic burden, and the budgets, mainly regional ones, receive less income. Taking into account the collection rates for the catch of Pacific salmon, for which quotas are not set, we are talking about an amount of up to 2 billion rubles. per year, calculated in ASRF. Sergey Sennikov, deputy director of Norebo Management Company, says that large companies with the status of GPOs often receive tax benefits on a formal basis, and the increase in the tax burden on the industry is distributed unevenly among large market participants.

The executive director of the Association of Production and Trade Enterprises of the Fish Market, Alexander Fomin, notes that the initiative is similar to an attempt to deprive competitors of benefits that ASRF members cannot receive. According to him, many large fish merchants with the status of GPO have been working in the Far East for a long time and are engaged in social projects. In addition, the requirements for GPO are quite strict, and if companies have confirmed the status, they must comply with it, Mr. Fomin adds.

The head of the Dobroflot Group of Companies, Alexander Efremov, points out that the meaning of tax incentives for SPOs is to keep the population employed at enterprises that act as the main or only employer in remote settlements of the coastal regions of the Far East and North. To receive benefits, the percentage of registered workers in the locality from among the employees of companies is important, and not the size of the business, he says. Alexander Savelyev, head of the Fisheries Information Agency, notes that the ASRF proposal may be in line with the regulator’s goals of increasing the tax burden on the industry, but this does not guarantee support for the initiative. As Mr. Efremov notes, the issue boils down to preserving the population in remote coastal areas of the regions.

The Ministry of Agriculture told Kommersant that they would consider the proposals of the ASRF in the prescribed manner upon receipt. The Federal Agency for Fisheries noted that the exemption for paying the fee for the use of WBR for GPO is valid until December 31, 2027. The specified period is established taking into account the performance by enterprises of functions for the socio-economic development of settlements in which they are registered. Also, organizations have time to prepare for the introduction of new technologies for processing catches, the production of highly processed products and the renewal of vessels, the agency representative said.

Anatoly Kostyrev