Business offered to allow external crypto-settlements

Representatives of the business community asked to legalize the conduct of external crypto-settlements and introduce cashback for the purchase of Russian electronics and the purchase of household appliances. About it writes RBC with reference to the special report “Key Business Problems in the Context of Sanctions and Structural Transformation in 2023”, which was prepared by the Institute of the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs under the President and was included in the annual report of Business Ombudsman Boris Titov to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Among the proposals is the creation of a regulatory framework for crypto-settlements with foreign counterparties. According to Titov, cryptocurrency is the most transparent means of payment. This is especially true when “SWIFT does not work, banks are turned off, and it becomes impossible to make any transfers,” added Dmitry Marinichev, public ombudsman for the Internet.

In addition, representatives of the business community proposed to introduce cashback for domestic electronics with Russian operating systems and certificates for food products from local manufacturers for low-income citizens. These measures are necessary to stimulate consumer demand. According to the head of the Association of Developers and Manufacturers of Electronics (ARPE) Ivan Pokrovsky, there is a similar initiative in the draft resolution, which was prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in May, but it applies only to organizations, and not to ordinary consumers.

Other proposals include the normative fixing of signs of “business fragmentation”, which may be characterized by illegal tax savings and the presence of a person who controls all the subjects of the scheme. The report also contains a proposal according to which the decision on additional assessment and collection of taxes will come into force only after the expiration of three months after the decision of the appellate instance of the tax authority. Only after that, enforcement measures, including blocking of accounts, will be possible.

The report also contains proposals for temporary subsidies to support employment at enterprises in the border areas, as well as to simplify the access of small enterprises to the state defense order. Representatives of the business community also proposed to rule out unreasonable prosecution of executors of the state defense order.

In September 2022, Putin signed a law on imprisonment for up to 10 years in case of failure of the state defense order. At the beginning of the year, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev remindedthat these sanctions have not yet been applied.