Benefits for IT companies can be extended to specialized universities
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The Ministry of Digital Development and the IT Committee of the State Duma want to extend to universities that actively train specialists in the IT field the benefits that accredited IT companies enjoy. This includes, among other things, a deferment from mobilization and tax incentives. Many universities already had the accreditation of IT companies, but lost it before the announcement of partial mobilization.
The State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications is discussing with a number of Russian universities and the Ministry of Digital Development the initiative to provide higher education institutions that train specialized specialists with benefits on a par with accredited software developers, said Alexander Khinshtein, head of the committee, during the Digital Industry of Industrial Russia forum. According to him, universities with at least 50% of students studying IT specialties may fall under this measure. The Ministry of Digital Development confirmed that they are working out the criteria for expanding IT benefits to specialized universities. The Ministry of Education and Science did not answer “Kommersant”.
In accordance with a number of decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and government decrees, participants in the register of accredited IT companies now have a number of benefits, the most important of which are the 0% income tax rate (until the end of 2024); no VAT on the sale of own programs and databases; social insurance contributions for employees 7.6% (instead of the standard 30%); loans at a rate of 3% per annum; a moratorium on inspections; simplified access to public procurement and government grants. Employees of such companies who meet a number of criteria (age, specialized higher education, work experience) are eligible for preferential mortgages, as well as deferrals from military service and mobilization. Many universities that previously had the accreditation of an IT company were excluded from the register of the Ministry of Digital Development in August 2022 for the inconsistency of their activity profile with the declared one.
According to a Kommersant source familiar with the preparation of the initiative, the key interest of universities is to use it to provide teachers with the opportunity to defer from mobilization. Mr. Khinshtein confirmed this and clarified that universities will receive a deferment from mobilization or conscription through the same mechanism as IT companies.
After the announcement of partial mobilization in September 2022, the issue of deferment from conscription for all candidates and doctors of science was raised in Russia. On May 31, the State Duma Committee on Defense recommended that the relevant bill be rejected by Communist Party deputy Mikhail Matveev. And the struggle for scientific personnel, apparently, has moved from the federal level to the sectoral one. Nikolay Komlev, director of the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises, told Kommersant that the industry had previously asked the Ministry of Digital Development to extend the deferment to teachers in IT disciplines at universities.
According to Mr. Khinshtein, on June 2, he also discussed with the rectors of a number of universities the possibility of finalizing existing measures to support the IT industry in terms of working with universities: “We are talking, for example, that IT companies investing in the development of universities could credit these expenses as expenses for core activities, which will expand the benefits. Tax incentives are in demand by universities.”
Rapprochement of the preferential regime for the industry and specialized universities is considered logical by representatives of higher education.
“The line between us and business is blurring every year. We can say that we are already a single ecosystem with our IT partners,” says NRU ITMO Rector Vladimir Vasiliev.
He, however, noted that the former presence of the university in the register of accredited IT companies “virtually did not give any advantages,” and representatives of the Duma committee did not turn to ITMO about a new idea. Other technical universities surveyed by Kommersant (MGTU named after Bauman, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, MIREA, etc.) did not respond to a request.
When implementing the initiative, it is necessary to work out the criteria in such a way that the quality of admission and training of personnel in IT specialties is taken into account, says Niyaz Gabdrakhmanov, head of the University Development laboratory at the HSE Institute of Education: “It is important that universities do not adjust the parameters of their activities to these criteria, to get on this list, as was the case for some IT companies.”
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