The government has submitted to the State Duma a bill to extend the free economic zone regime to regions bordering Ukraine
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The White House has submitted to the State Duma a bill extending the free economic zone (FEZ) regime operating in new regions to as yet unspecified parts of the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions. We are talking about approximately 300 enterprises, both those affected by shelling from the Ukrainian side and those in need of relocation to safer places, as well as possible new projects. Experts, however, note that this is not so much about attracting new companies, but about compensating for damages for those already operating.
The government at a meeting on Friday approved and then submitted to the State Duma billextending the SEZ regime introduced in 2023 for new regions to parts of three constituent entities of the Russian Federation adjacent to the territories of Ukraine, DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. It’s about about Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.
As the Ministry of Economy clarified after a meeting, the regime will not cover these entire regions, but certain locations that will be determined by the government (for example, we are talking about the city of Shebekino in the Belgorod region, which was significantly damaged by shelling).
The expansion of the SEZ, which is planned to be approved before the end of the spring session of the State Duma, will be valid until 2051 with the possibility of extension.
The SEZ in these regions will be supervised by the Ministry of Economy, while in new regions of the Russian Federation the Ministry of Construction is responsible for its work.
Let us recall that the essence of the SEZ is to provide, first of all, tax benefits to residents: reduced rates of insurance premiums (7.6% instead of 30%), zeroing the rate of the federal part of the income tax for ten years (3%, the regional part of 17% can be reduced or reset to zero at the discretion of the territories themselves), exemption from property tax and a number of other preferences. The SEZ also provides for a free customs zone regime.
To use the benefits, companies or individual entrepreneurs must meet a number of requirements. For the first three years of operation in the SEZ, the volume of capital investments must be at least 1 million rubles. for IT projects and scientific research, at least 3 million rubles for small and medium-sized businesses and 30 million rubles for large ones. Investments should be aimed at creating or modernizing production, restoring fixed assets and design and survey work. There are no restrictions on the scope of activity, but regions may introduce them.
As noted by the Ministry of Economy, within the framework of the expanded SEZ, three categories of objects will be able to receive support after the adoption of the changes: enterprises affected by shelling, production facilities that need to be transported to safer locations, as well as new projects.
According to the department, in total, about 160 thousand organizations and individual entrepreneurs operate in the three added regions. According to preliminary estimates, about 300 affected companies will receive support with benefits – mainly from the fields of industry, agriculture, tourism, IT and logistics. The department is not yet ready to estimate the potential volume of lost budget revenues from the use of benefits. “The support measure will be of a declarative nature, so it is premature to assess its financial volume now,” the Ministry of Economy explained.
Director of the Research Center for Spatial Analysis and Regional Diagnostics of the IPEI of the Presidential Academy, Dmitry Zemlyansky, notes that the regions to which the SEZ is expanding are one of the key industrialized territories of Central Russia. The Belgorod and Kursk regions are centers of iron ore mining, without supplies of which difficulties in metallurgy may arise. The Bryansk region is one of the key regions of transport engineering and the military-industrial complex. “The change in the situation due to the NWO has increased investment risks for these territories,” says the expert.
Director of the center “Russian Cluster Observatory” of the ISSEK National Research University Higher School of Economics Evgeniy Kutsenko believes that in the current conditions we are not talking about attracting new companies – “due to obvious risks, this is unlikely to happen.” De facto, we are talking about compensation for damage to already operating enterprises.
The tax exemption, he said, “could be an argument for staying in the region and perhaps launching new projects.”
Chairman of the Kursk regional branch of Business Russia Oleg Malakhov believes that it is necessary to support business in the surrounding areas. “Despite all the difficulties, the industry has shown stable growth over the years, but current circumstances have stopped many investors,” he says. Chairman of the Bryansk branch of the association, director of Megapolis-Stroy LLC Alexey Kubarev notes that “these measures will not particularly attract investment from outside, but they will encourage local businesses to invest – benefits can motivate them to modernize and expand production.” According to the head of Volokonovsky Industrial Park LLC (Belgorod region), Sergei Lisov, “in conditions of personnel shortages, including against the backdrop of migration of the local population, the key will be the ability of businesses to provide enterprises with labor resources.”
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