Import substitutes will be relieved of checks – Newspaper Kommersant No. 145 (7346) of 08/11/2022
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The government, in order to accelerate import substitution, continues to update the mechanisms of state support for industry with the help of benefits and reducing administrative pressure. The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to introduce a temporary moratorium on inspections, as well as on tax and currency control of participants in industrial parks. It is expected that this cluster mechanism for the development of production will help fill the niches vacated after the departure of foreign suppliers. Experts and business representatives support the idea of reducing inspections, but the project itself, taking into account other government initiatives on deregulation, is considered ineffective.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has published a draft government decree regulating control and supervision activities in relation to participants in industrial clusters. For such enterprises, the agency proposes to reduce the number of inspections by introducing a moratorium on them for the first three years from the start of the project. Cluster participants are promised only preventive checks in the form of counseling, information and self-examination. In addition, the project introduces a moratorium on the currency and tax control of entrepreneurs for the first year of the project. In the next two years, tax monitoring awaits them – such a mechanism is seen as a way to reduce the administrative burden on businesses through online access to tax reporting enterprises.
It is expected that in the first five years of the project, controllers can conduct documentary and field checks and surveys of cluster participants, and monitor compliance with mandatory requirements. At the same time, the document introduces a closed list of grounds for unscheduled inspections of such enterprises: for example, in case of a threat to the life and health of citizens, the security of the state, the occurrence of emergency situations – upon agreement with the prosecutor’s office, and on behalf of the president, the prime minister and the head of the government apparatus – without agreement. The moratorium will not apply to enterprises from the categories of high and extremely high risk, as well as those under constant state supervision.
It should be noted that the reduction of administrative pressure on industrial clusters is part of the measures to stimulate import substitution. Earlier, the government had already begun centralizing state support for industry and introducing flexible regulation to improve its efficiency (see Kommersant of July 12 and 29). At the same time, industrial clusters are seen as a mechanism that can quickly eliminate supply chain gaps and expand industrial cooperation between Russian enterprises – under the sanctions, they are known to be unable to cover the sharply increased demand and replace foreign suppliers.
Vice-President of the CSR Konstantin Nikitin considers the project the first attempt to establish guarantees for participants in industrial clusters. “The draft was written by analogy with the already adopted government acts, including the moratorium on inspections, and contains many contradictions. Although the government’s decisions on the moratorium have been made for 2022 only, there is already an instruction from the president to prepare the next stage of the reform of the control system. Therefore, the draft resolution no longer takes into account the decisions made and is unlikely to be useful to business,” he said.
However, Alexei Mostovshchikov, a member of the Delovaya Rossiya General Council, points out that although work is underway to ease the conditions for doing business and reduce bureaucratic obstacles, “there may still be excesses and arbitrariness” on the ground. “Even taking into account the moratorium on inspections of the business community, there have been reports of repeated inspections of businesses in the regions, so the issue is quite acute. Given the unprecedented pressure, sanctions and restrictions, business needs relief and support at least in this part, ”the expert states.
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