The Ministry of Digital will request 11.9 billion rubles from the budget. for concessional lending to electronics manufacturers
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The Ministry of Digital Development plans to request 11.9 billion rubles from the budget. to subsidize preferential rates on loans that electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturers will take in 2024 to purchase components. This is 4.4 billion rubles. more than in 2023. Market participants call the measure in demand, especially given the increase in the cost of loans after the key rate hike. But the incentives also have opponents who argue that encouraging the purchase of foreign components complicates the development of the industry.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the letter of the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Andrey Zarenin, sent in August to large telecom operators (MTS, VimpelCom, Rostelecom, ER-Telecom, MegaFon, etc.). The official asks companies to provide data on the volume of equipment (base stations, transponders, video cameras, IoT terminals, switches, smartphones, etc.) that will be required for the development of the industry until 2035, as well as information on the characteristics of this equipment and requirements for electronic component base (ECB).
The Mintsifra confirmed to Kommersant that the letter was sent: “This is a planned work, it is important for us to assess which categories of equipment currently fully cover the needs of the domestic market, and what else needs to be done for the active development of the telecom industry.” The operators declined to comment.
The interlocutor of Kommersant from among the recipients of the letter says that the ministry needs “an objective idea of what the market needs” and what opportunities Russian manufacturers have to meet these needs. Kommersant’s source in the electronics manufacturer adds that the Ministry of Digital Finance also plans to use the data to calculate the amount of subsidies needed for 2024 (regulated by the 407th government decree) to compensate for loan rates. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, the ministry is going to request 11.9 billion rubles from the budget, but “accurate data is needed to justify the amount to the Ministry of Finance.” In 2023, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, 7.5 billion rubles are provided for these purposes.
The resolution was developed and approved in March 2022, supplemented in February 2023. It assumes that manufacturers of electronics and telecommunications equipment can borrow funds (3–100 billion rubles) from a number of banks (Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, etc.) for the purchase of electronic components, and the Ministry of Digital Finance subsidizes the loan rate up to 1–5% per annum. In 2022, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, the total amount of loans under the program amounted to about 100 billion rubles, in 2023 a limit of 140 billion rubles was set.
Initially, the measure, Kommersant’s sources said in the market, was required so that companies could urgently replenish their ECB warehouses at the expense of loans against the backdrop of rising prices and complication of logistics. When supplies stabilized, the government began to see the mechanism as a way to stimulate the development of large producers – this is aimed at a high lower threshold for the loan amount.
Now, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the electronics manufacturer, taking into account the August increase in the key rate to 12%, market participants “again found themselves in a situation similar to the spring of 2022, and the measure will be in demand,” since banks “are now ready to lend at least under 16 %”. The director of Promobit, Maxim Koposov, specified that his company is now ready to issue funds for operating activities, including the purchase of components, at a rate of 17%. The top manager calls the lower threshold for lending under the program too high: “It needs to be reduced to 30 million rubles.”
However, not all market participants consider the measure justified. According to the general director of Norsi-Trans, Sergey Ovchinnikov, stimulating the purchase of foreign components only complicates the development of the industry. “Subsidies for foreign components and equipment of the Ministry of Digital Development contradict the obligation of state-owned companies to purchase Russian equipment.”
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