The government is changing the conditions for issuing grants for IT projects

The Ministry of Digital Development plans to change the mechanism for issuing grants for the development and implementation of IT solutions, as well as for the implementation of particularly significant projects (VSP). The latter will not be issued immediately, but in stages, and the threshold for minimum co-financing of developments by companies applying for funds will increase from 20% to 50%. The ministry emphasizes that the situation of IT companies against the backdrop of the import substitution policy has already improved significantly. Experts and market participants note that now the state will only support those who have their own resources.

Kommersant got acquainted with the draft government resolution developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and published on November 15 for public discussion on regulation.gov.ru. The document amends government decree 550, which regulates the issuance of grants by the Russian Foundation for Information Technologies (RFIT) in two areas. The first is IT projects, applications for grants are sent by developers, the amount of funding does not exceed 500 million rubles. The second is the RFP, their list is approved and sent to RFRIT by the Presidium of the Government Commission for Digital Development, the grant size cannot exceed 6 billion rubles. According to a Kommersant source in the market, previously the approval of the issuance of grants for the open-ended project was carried out “according to a simplified procedure”; it “was a higher priority for RFRIT than for ordinary projects.”

The explanatory note to the new version of the resolution states that the amount of subsidies from the budget that RFRIT receives annually will not allow for simultaneous financing of both the general public works program and projects of IT companies. Therefore, the Ministry of Digital Development will introduce the possibility of stage-by-stage financing of the OPP if the amount of the required grant exceeds 500 million rubles. The document also raises the minimum threshold for co-financing projects by grant recipients from 20% to 50%.

The situation with the issuance of RFRIT grants in 2024 remains unclear. After Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maxim Parshin was detained in July on suspicion of receiving a bribe for assistance in allocating RFRIT grants, the ministry announced the suspension of funding for verification (see “Kommersant” dated July 17). Recently, at the Cnews forum, Minister Maksut Shadayev said that the ministry had decided to abandon direct grant support for the development of IT companies, but would help corporate customers develop and implement solutions that replace mature foreign products (see “Kommersant” dated November 2).

The Ministry of Digital Development explained to Kommersant that the rule of a 50% share of co-financing was in effect until the end of 2021, but then the threshold was lowered to 20% due to the need to accelerate import substitution: “But Russian developers are filling the vacated niches, the demand for domestic software is growing. Russian analogues have already been presented for 90% of solutions. These conditions allow us to return to the subsidy rules in force in 2021.” A return to parity will make it possible to “more efficiently distribute budget funding and support a larger number of IT projects that are in demand in key sectors of the economy,” RFRIT added.

Raising the co-financing threshold looks like a protective measure in order to “attract more professional market participants who have a high level of financial stability,” says Andrey Yatskov, Advisor to the General Director for Legal Affairs of Tsifra Group.

The head of the committee for the development of financing of the IT industry of the ARPP “Domestic Soft” Anna Reizner sees two reasons for the changes. The first, according to her, is a general reduction in the amount of budget funding for the industry. Secondly, Ms. Raizner adds, the Ministry of Digital Development “does not hide the fact that it has decided to continue financing only particularly significant projects; according to established practice, such support is received by large or very large companies – customers who have enough resources and their own funds.” In early November, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the government had selected about 200 proposals for the development of domestic software with a total value of 230 billion rubles. But, according to him, only 25 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget.

Nikita Korolev