Business and government should be in constant dialogue

Tatyana Mineeva, Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights in Moscow, recalled this during a press conference at TASS dedicated to the Forum of Business Ombudsmen, which will be held in the capital on November 29-30.

“For the second year we have been holding the Forum of the Ombudsman for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights, at which a dialogue is being held between business and government. It will feature a large business and lawyer community. On this platform, leaders of industry communities will share their best practices in working with the state,” said Tatiana Mineeva.

According to her, a lot has already been achieved over the past year:

“For example, amendments were made to Federal Law No. 361, in particular, to the article on additional measures to support families with children, which made it possible to pay for educational services provided by individual entrepreneurs with the appropriate license using maternity capital. We fought for this initiative for several years: now individual entrepreneurs can also participate in the development of maternity capital funds.

We also changed tax legislation, and as a result, the president signed a law on conducting an experiment in four regions of the country at once (Moscow, Moscow and Kaluga regions, and Tatarstan). A special tax regime will be established there – this is an automated simplified taxation system (AUSN). Simply put, microbusiness taxpayers will be provided with an automated service similar to the My Tax service for the self-employed. We will talk about this in great detail on the forum, because not all entrepreneurs are aware of it.

In addition, we worked closely with restaurateurs: we resolved their painful issue of a ban on selling alcohol on summer verandas (now the corresponding bill has already been submitted to the State Duma – S.I.).

We also worked on import substitution: a special working group was created, which included more than 150 people. In the field of cinema, in particular, over the financing of domestic films for children and adolescents. As a result, the corresponding instruction was given by the President.

We also changed the federal law concerning the export of industrial and telecommunications equipment, as a result, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Industry and Trade developed a mechanism for issuing permits, with which entrepreneurs had great difficulties. On this occasion, I received a lot of requests.

We consider our work with outdoor advertising operators to be one of the main victories, when by joint efforts we came to the conclusion that the State Duma rejected the draft law on amending a single operator in digital advertising. That is, now there will be no monopolist in this market. There will be no bankruptcies, and 150,000 people will not be under threat of dismissal.”

Talking about the work done, Tatyana Mineeva focused on supporting women’s entrepreneurship:

“I head the Moscow Association of Women in Business, where a lot of attention is now paid to this agenda. I receive a lot of requests from the wives of entrepreneurs who have been mobilized. We have separately developed a program for women who are now forced to run a business for their husband.”

The defender of the rights of the self-employed, public commissioner for the self-employed and microbusiness Dmitry Potapenko, who also took part in the press conference, will also take part in the work of the upcoming Moscow forum:

“The number of self-employed in the country is increasing literally day by day. This is one of those modes that are beneficial to almost everyone. Their number is already over 5 million people. I think this number will continue to grow. However, no state support measures were extended to the self-employed, in connection with which I want to inform you that from January 1, the self-employed will be able to apply for sick leave, and, most importantly, receive payments from the Medical Insurance Fund. The probability of making this long-awaited decision is very high. (…) In the forum we will discuss what else needs to be done for the self-employed. So, one of the main issues that needs to be addressed is that for all branches of state power and commercial structures, the self-employed should move from the state that I call “re-physicists and non-Yuriki”, because of which they do not fall under state support and compensation measures. “.

Another participant in the press conference, the chairman of the expert council under the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in Moscow, lawyer Yevgeny Korchago, pointed out that the upcoming forum should raise the ongoing issues of criminal prosecution of businessmen:

“Despite the fact that over the past 20 years the so-called prison contingent of pre-trial detention centers has significantly decreased in our country, the number of entrepreneurs who are in pre-trial detention centers is nevertheless huge. And every month, together with Tatyana Mineeva, the commissioner for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights in Moscow, we visit pre-trial detention centers and see that the people who get there are not murderers, not rapists, but, nevertheless, law enforcement agencies with tenacity worthy of better use, they are placed there. What is an entrepreneur in jail? This is a person who is completely paralyzed in the ability to run his own business. And this means that sometimes tens, hundreds or even thousands of its employees find themselves in a state of pre-dismissal or dismissal, because the business is collapsing. It is impossible to conduct normal business from a pre-trial detention center. Moreover, I would like to remind you that innocent people are in the pre-trial detention center until the court verdict, and in such a situation, Tatyana Mineeva and I have been working for several years to at least simplify the life of those entrepreneurs who are in the pre-trial detention center; expand the possibilities of their interaction with the outside world. We have already implemented a pilot project in Moscow to organize a conference call in a pre-trial detention center with lawyers, but now a problem has arisen due to the lack of federal regulation. Currently, the relevant bill has been developed and is being studied by the United Russia Expert Council. The problem of lawyers getting into a pre-trial detention center is a problem for all million-plus cities.”

So, judging by this press conference, the participants of the upcoming Forum of Ombudsmen for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights will have something to discuss, and maybe even solve some topical issues…

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo by Andrey Lyubimov / Moskva Agency